We hoped it would be over. It’s not over.
Maybe over was just a fantasy. The same forces that existed before the elections, some dating back hundreds of years, continue.
My friend John Perkins once gave me a wake-up phrase that I treasure. John, an African-American change-maker, said (and I paraphrase due to rusty memory), “To think that change has to happen fast [or in our time frame] is a sign of white entitlement. Our people have been working for change for over one hundred and fifty years. We’re in it for the long haul.”
Touché!
(Sorry, John, for any butchering; the idea is so compelling.)
Go deeper
Over the past couple of years, I’ve felt a deep hunger stirring within me, a longing for values of goodness and for truths that run deeper than any presidential cycle.
If thoughts have forms and carry energy, I want to boost those that feed my sense of what is uplifting and good about being human.
As the educator/philosopher Rudolf Steiner, founder of the Waldorf School movement, wrote:
To Wonder at Beauty
To wonder at beauty,
Stand guard over truth,
Look up to the noble,
Resolve on the good.
This leadeth us truly
To purpose in living,
To right in our doing,
To peace in our feeling,
To light in our thinking.
And teaches us trust,
In the working of God,
In all that there is,
In the width of the world,
In the depth of the soul.
Use your own word for God, if you like, and then dig for that place of trust.
Tracking on our inner nobility doesn’t mean ignoring the mean, heinous, and injust. Steiner’s verse asks us to go deeper within ourselves to find and amplify that place where nobility lives.
In my experience, most people, in their deepest gut, long for love, connection, and a sense of truth, beauty, and goodness. Yet that sense can become obscured by the chatter of life, an obsession with the chaos around us.
“The only solution to the problem is to go deeper.” Gourasana (spiritual teacher)
If ever there was a time to go deeper, it’s now.
Before and after
It would have been nice to think the US election would solve our current catastrophes and healed the wounds left by hundreds of years of collective trauma that surface daily as racism, genderism, classism, ageism, etc.
These wounds wouldn’t be wiped out by one election.
Before the elections, I needed to seek inner guidance, connect to the people and forces that inspired me, and pray for truth, beauty, justice, and goodness to prevail.
After the elections, I need to seek inner guidance, connect to the people and forces that inspire me, and pray for truth, beauty, justice, and goodness to prevail.
Taking care
I know my body’s constitution. I need to stay away from the news for a while. Do what works for you.
But as we proceed in a time of clamor and cacophony, please spend time with beauty. It gives me strength, calms my soul, and helps me care for others.
I will draw, paint, listen to music, and feed my soul in nature. I’ll write about creativity. I’ll connect with friends. I’ll pray for the country’s highest good.
What will you do that will feed you, your dreams, and the country?
(Please drink water..)
Thank you, John Perkins. Yes, I’m in it for the long haul.
3 Responses
Thank you Sally:
I too need to stay away from the daily drama of the election and whatever else is happening in our country.
I’ve been making hats, learning Movement Intelligence processes, swimming 3 times a week, taking a sauna once a week in my daughter and son-in-laws sweet cedar barrel sauna and taking good care of myself in other ways..
The election is definitely not going to solve our country’s problems, but whose in charge does effect all of us.
Love you
Viana
Thank you Sally for your words of inspiration. I am hanging in there, trying to stay grounded in my faith and believe n the goodness of the universe. I worked over the past 7 weeks phone banking for the man whom I believe has the interest of the country’s common good in mind. I also did a swimathon and had friends pledge support for that same candidate. Grateful to be able to swim and release. Just trying to surrender to the universe right now. Leave it in God’s hands. Hoping to return to normal sleep habits, while nurturing my body with good food, seeking out human connection, renewing my relationship with my partner.
Keep hanging in there Jack! And thank you for your commitment to good, to faith, and to this country…fingers crossed.