The Day After
Well there you have it.
History is made.
Perhaps not in the way many people believed it would be.
But made nonetheless.
I chose not to share my thoughts and feelings about this years presidential race. There was no candidate that my conscience would allow me to support. Since that was my truth, it didn’t make sense to me to engage in the conversation. Through it all, I have been a curious, and often bewildered, observer. As an introvert and a highly sensitive person, watching all of it play out has at most times been excruciating. Now that the result is confirmed, I sit in absolute astonishment.
I have never liked or trusted any politician with the name of Clinton. The main reason for this is the physical and spiritual recoiling that arises in me whenever I am exposed to them on television or other media. I believe in trusting my gut and that intuition told me “NO” from the very beginning. With that said, I cannot imagine a cruder joke than our country nominating, and electing, a man that spews such filth, such degradation, and promotes so much hate and separation, as if it’s the norm. After much deliberation and personal internal conflict, I decided to give my vote to Hillary. It was painful to fill in the bubble, but I knew why I was doing it. I was voting for the lesser evil.
As we all awake on November 9, 2016, it really doesn’t matter who gained the presidency. Because this election, with all it’s circus acts, smoke and mirrors, the fighting, unfriending, and disbelief, is not about the candidates or winners at all. It is about WAKING US UP.
I realized this while trying to keep from giving my opinions at a political salon held by my son’s school about a month ago. One eager student approached me and asked for my opinion on the presidential election. Later I was glad he did, because it forced me to give words to all the observations I had been making over the months.
I believe we live in a friendly universe. I believe that love always wins. I also believe that people are innately good and are doing the best they can with what they have. Of course, you can argue that serial killers or rapists aren’t doing the best they can. Then maybe they are. That’s for another conversation. What this means to me is that there MUST be a higher purpose in all this madness. There must be a benevolent reason why these things are happening. I believe that reason is for our forward growth as a nation, and as individuals. How can that be, you ask?
We are more evolved as a society than we think we are. I know it doesn’t look or feel that way today. I get that! Yet we have come to this place with new eyes and new understandings like never before. The events that have led us to this moment in time have caused countless people to speak up about things not previously talked about in open venues. Women have told their stories about being physically, sexually and in all other ways abused, to the world through social media and on stages everywhere. Persons from different cultural backgrounds have shared candidly their experiences of racism, violence, profiling, and repression, so that all of us can hear how they have had to alter their ways of living and raising children, merely to survive the conditions and threats that are inherent in their communities. Young people have tuned in to what the “grown ups” are doing and saying and they are already on a crusade to change our world for the better. Finally, many, many, MANY people have come out of hiding, with a newfound freedom to speak up, and have shown us exactly who they are! This includes the good, the bad, and the truly ugly.
With all this rich, juicy, “can’t take it back now” honesty on the table, we can begin the real work. We are going to have to look each other in the eye, and stand behind our convictions, whatever they may be. You could just keep unfriending people when they ruffle your feathers, if that’s your schtick. However, I think it is our call to do the hard work of facing our differences, and those who we would call our enemies, in the name of raising all of us to a higher level of being. Please consider this as an alternative solution.
Where do we start? As Gandhi put it, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” It starts with you and me. One person at a time. One conversation at a time. One judgment (or choice not to judge) at a time. There are so many small things, some we take for granted or don’t think about, that we can do to affect positive shifts all around us. Look inside yourself and ask some tough questions. Find ways in which you have contributed to racism, violence, sexism, homophobia, and repression of any kind. Make a decision to improve yourself in that area. Ask for help. I am committed to this. It is a tough pill to swallow when one of my children points out that a comment I made was laced with tones of intolerance of some particular group. Or perhaps it was blatant. Either way, I have to go inside and admit to myself that I was wrong. Yes, I said that. Yes, I am contributing to the problem when I talk that way. I charge myself with the task of first apologizing and admitting my mistake. Intolerance is always a mistake. Then I go about seeking a better way to express what I need to without words that harm or cast a shadow on other people. This is only one example.
Like you and evidently millions of other Americans, I have considered moving to Canada. There is no way to know how the next few years are going to play out. Many of us are terrified. I am right there with you. Yet perhaps this is our chance to make some huge strides for humankind. I don’t know about you but I am surrounded by a tribe of beautiful, shiny helpers, healers, energy workers, intuitives, and other brilliant people with huge hearts that want nothing more than to save the world and all that’s in it. Those of us that want LOVE to win are plentiful! The caveat is that we have to stand up and claim the love, give the love, acknowledge the love and live it every day. If you think that sounds cheesy, question that. The ultimate goal of every human being is love. We go about finding it in myriad ways. Some yell and shout their opinions, some point their fingers, some boast about how much money and power they have, some lie about their financial dealings, some share their opinions, and some don’t. No matter the technique, it is all a search to be accepted and loved. We need to start telling the truth about this.
The time is now. Choose love. Share love. Teach love. Demonstrate love. Be love.
Love will win.
