A historic election, the results reverberating through the airwaves…and our souls.
The anxiety on the planet is palpable. It woke me up hours before dawn the morning of the election, begging me to get to my meditation pillow and do my part to hold the intention for unity and love. As I sat quietly in the darkness, I watched the thoughts roll by, as if I was listening in on the thoughts of millions of people:
What will happen to our freedoms if…?
What will happen to our family/friends who don’t fit into our culture’s boxes if…?
How will other global leaders respond if…?
What is going to happen to the economy if…?
One breath at a time, I felt the fear move through every cell of my body – fear for our future, fear for the world my son will live in some day.
And then, suddenly, in a next breath, it all dissolved and I knew…it’s all going to be okay.
I know. I know. “Oh, Amanda. I don’t know. Is it going to be okay? Or are you just another ignorant spiritual person who thinks that LOVE and GRATITUDE are the answer to everything?”
The short answer is: Yes, I believe it’s going to be okay. And no, I don’t believe LOVE and GRATITUDE is the fix-all for everything…especially in this case.
Now, for the long answer…
Every time I sat down to watch election news in the last year, my predominant thought was, This is a show. How can any of this be real?
By the time we were down to the two candidates, I was shaking my head at our choice between “The Twisted Masculine” (everything our Collective Consciousness has been working to break free from – patriarchy, bigotry, fear-based leadership, division, etc.) and “The Twisted Feminine” (the exhausted, unhealthy, successful-at-a-price, armor-cracking-under-pressure version of what our world is beginning to recognize as a woman’s true power).
Neither one felt like movement forward.
While I watched the debates, I was struck most by THEIR ONE COMMONALITY: neither one of them took personal responsibility for much. They changed the subject, danced around the issues, and pointed fingers when someone asked them about a personal, professional, or political mess they were allegedly involved in.
As I watched the panic emanate off my FB feed the morning after the election, I felt immense GRATITUDE for the last several years I’ve spent working with messengers and witnessing the Divine Co-Authorship of our personal stories.
When we put all of our defining moments on paper, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE to ignore the evidence that while we were living in our story full of challenges and pain, there was another Bigger Story of our lives being witnessed.
With all of the patterns, the mirrors, the synchronicities revealed in our stories – it’s inevitable that we begin to see how all things (yes, even the shitty things) happened FOR US…NOT TO US.
And that’s when the real healing begins. It’s the moment when we open up to the possibility that we can become the co-author of our own story and decide in a moment that because we are both human and divine, we can feel the fear, pain, grief, and rage AND also relax into the knowing that there is a Bigger Story that will be revealed in due time.
What if…somehow…this historic election is happening FOR US, NOT TO US?
What if this guy is a mirror for all of us…
an opportunity to heal deeper wounds and shadows we’ve buried…
collectively and individually?
What if the pain of old abuses that he triggers in us…
is pain we didn’t realize was still there, begging for healing?
What if the things that upset/enrage/disgust us about him…
are the same parts of ourselves that we are constantly suppressing and shaming
cuz we can’t figure out what else to do with them?
What if some of the initial reactions to rage in the streets or shame him/his wife…
are actually an indication that we still have some inner work to do?
I know it’s true for me. The last few weeks have brought me face-to-face with some very old wounds, and the shadows in myself that will wound others if I do not meet them with mindfulness and love.
What if this is the equivalent of the The Wind knocking us all out of our nests
(especially spiritual leaders who bow to an all-knowing,
all-loving Consciousness/God/Universe)
to let us know that it’s time to start using our own wings?
That we are ready for what’s ahead?
I’ve been getting this message loud and clear for the last 8 months. I get it. It’s time.
What if this whole apparent mess is actually a Divinely Orchestrated Opportunity
to practice the personal responsibility we’ve been talking so much about…
to accelerate our evolution collectively and individually?
What if this is going to REQUIRE us to take more responsibility
for our lives and our friends’ lives and our communities?
What if this is going to FORCE us to ask,
“What is my part in making all of this right?”
I know it starts with me, not him.
One good character or leader in the story isn’t enough. Frodo needed Sam Wise, Gandolf, the Fellowship, and a whole damn army. Luke needed Leah and Hans and their army. Neo needed Trinity and Morpheus and their army of revolutionaries. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ghandi needed a revolutionary army of peaceful protestors. Jesus and the Buddha needed disciples.
One good leader isn’t enough. Change doesn’t happen from the top down, especially in a system that is so broken and twisted.
And, real, long-lasting change can’t happen for good until we get real about our own pain and shadows that threaten our personal and collective well-being.
I know, for me, that there are still wounds and shadows that need my attention because they’ve all been in my face since the election.
I watched the panic, and judged it.
Are these the same people who profess to believe in a loving God/Universe?
And yet…wouldn’t you know…the same places in my life where I have been the most fearful and least trusting of the One I profess…have burst wide open in the last few weeks?
I watched the shaming of his wife and the violent protests, and judged them.
How are you all acting any better than them?
And yet…wouldn’t you know…I had lots of opportunities to see my own instincts to shame and rage at some of the people and situations in my life?
What is my part in making all of this right?
I do not have all of the answers.
In fact, the only one I have today is:
To heal my own wounds and do whatever it takes to be Love in this world – the kind that speaks the truth, stays loving in the hard conversations, asks for what she wants and needs, and holds herself and others accountable to our agreed-upon highest intentions.
I’m digging in…how about you?
What is your part in making all of this right?
I’d love to hear what you are feeling compelled to be, share, and do.
Do you have an inner revolution starting – some wounds and relationships that need attention?
Do you have a social justice cause that you are being urged to join?
Do you have a message that’s being stoked with these events?
(And please…whatever you share, I ask that you do your best to wrap it in some love.)