Social Media & Walk for Peace

I was fortunate enough this past Sunday to have the monks & their dog Aloka pass by my little farm on their Walk for Peace journey that is taking them from Fort Worth, TX to Washington DC. I shared a short little 13 second video clip to my business FB & IG accounts of their journey that I took at 7:50am from my driveway where I had been waiting with coffee in hand since 6:30am. They literally spent the night less than a 5 minute walk down the road but no one was sure what time they would start their journey so I got up in plenty of time to be sure not to miss them. I wanted to show my support for what they were doing & document a little shining beacon of light on a rather foggy, damp day.

I had zero intentions of creating a viral video & it never even crossed my mind because the video honestly isn't that great (and I'm really not a big fan of social media if you can't tell by how infrequently I post ..lol). I just wanted to share a little bit of happiness (or a glimmer as some people like to call them) because goodness knows the world needs more of that these days. For whatever reason I guess my completely novice, unpolished video struck a chord with people and it has been viewed over 2.1 million times now & I have picked up over 8,000 followers the last few days. I know these 8,000+ new followers are not that interested in my work - they are more interested in "glimmers" which I think the world is starved of these days. 

The video currently has over 2,200 comments & while the majority were/are positive & supportive there was/is quite a bit of negativity. People making snarky comments how it's a waste of time/ the world will never change, people making completely unrelated political comments & turning it into arguments about the political landscape, people criticizing me for speaking to them (as an aside I was respecting their wishes for a peaceful, quiet walk but they spoke to me first so as a southerner of course I'm going to reciprocate), then I was criticized for saying "good morning" as I was told "Anyone can say good morning to anyone. You should have said x,y,z". People telling me I should have gave them food, shoes, gifts, etc. People arguing about religion. People that know absolutely nothing about what their journey is about but wanting to accuse them of a publicity stunt & "way for them to make money". Even had an African American "gentleman" tell me it wasn't my farm, it was theirs & they wanted it back. How you can take something as unifying as monks walking for peace & try to turn it into a racial issue is beyond me. I was trying to moderate the comments & I actually hid quite a bit of negative ones but it got overwhelming & it was disturbing my calm so I just let them be. One of my favorite mantras is "Don't disturb my calm" so when something does, if I can remove it from my life I will. Which is the reason I got rid of my TV subscription back in 2020 & haven't looked back. It was also one of the main reasons I chose not to go back and work in the corporate world when I began my journey into being a full-time jewelry artist. I worked for Gap Inc for many years & as far as companies go they are a good one to work for. I have nothing negative to say about them but dealing with the general population on a daily basis in a large retail setting is a different story. It was disturbing my calm. So, as I have said in my bio on my Etsy page that I wrote many years ago (probably going on 17 years now since I wrote it) I started my business because it brought me happiness & I hoped that it would bring others happiness as well. 

I may choose to share more of my "glimmers" on social media now or I may not (social media feels noisy to me & I am a lover of peace & quiet). I'm pretty sure the followers I picked up are not the ones who were making the negative comments & goodness knows we could all use more little sparks of joy. 

Peace & Love,

jenn