What Am I Doing Today?

Crying. Smiling. Breathing. Laughing. Hoping. Preparing.

I know that presidential elections are not the whole story. I know that there is work to be done. I know that there are people I know and love who thought Trump was their answer. I don't understand it, I don't agree, and it makes me a bit devastated. However, I know that all of those people are not monsters.

I refuse to say that someone is a garbage human being if: XYZ. Because as naive as it may be, I'm backed by the saints and prophets of nearly every religion and philosophy when I say that we are all connected, we are all valuable, and we are all worthy of love. So I will continue forward with that because it feels right in my body and soul. It is the one truth that has never changed for me- and many things have changed for me.

Today I cried big fat and small streaming tears. My body released a small portion of four years of stress, anxiety, and the strain of the struggle to hope.

My child said "Yay!" and then he quipped: "And we get a woman too, right?" This is the innocence I want to keep. We don't demonize our political opponents here. We don't sugar-coat our disagreements with them either. We simply state what we think is good and right and what we hope for. My child still hopes. Because we have created a home where hope is still alive. 

Today, for the first time in a while, I felt a little less like our hopefulness was a strain on reality.

Like I said before, we have a lot of work to do. This is not an easy flip of a switch where everything is OK now. No political person is the savior. But I do believe the work has a chance to get done now. There's actually a chance that the debates could become conversations and collaborations. There's a chance that the trajectory of hate and anger can shift to reconciliation and facing the hard stuff with integrity and hope. And compassion. 

Friends: do not demonize the other. We HAVE to figure out how to build relationships. If you hear me saying this as some white girl trying to get us all to get along, don't. I have ulterior motives. Relationships were what helped me grow as a human. It's how I became less bigoted, racist, patriarchal, homophobic, ethnocentric, etc etc. Only when faced with a human being (or a force of nature) who was not like me that I still connected with- that is when change happened. I want this to keep happening to me until all the shit has been burned out of me by love. I want the same for all of you, because how else can we be fully and beautifully human? 

This is how we're made. We're all connected because that connection is the maker and savior of us all. The earth, and all living things are connected. I don't care what religion or non-religion you are. This is a universal truth. The more we are in relationship with all that moves and has breath, the more we all will recognize the divine in ourselves and each other. When we see this divine spark in each other: we will be forced to change what we thought was divine and good. We should face this continually until we can't help but see the divine. We recognize it everywhere. It should blind us.

This world is not dual, binary, or flat. Our universe is profound and gorgeous. Why oh why would we want to miss out on experiencing it? 

Let's get to work. Go.