So I’m going to assume my readers don’t think meditation is a gateway for the devil to enter our minds and it’s not too woke. I mean, it’s a pretty mainstream practice these days going way back. Meditation originated in India, a very long time ago. According to the Live and Dare website, the oldest documented evidence of the practice of meditation are wall arts in the Indian subcontinent from approximately 5,000 to 3,500 BCE, showing people seated in meditative postures with half-closed eyes. In fact today it’s a recommended self help tool and who among us didn’t need some self help after November 5?
So, I was doing a guided meditation and this figure comes toward me and hands me a box with a key inside but the meditation ended without my knowing what the key symbolized. Then a few days later I was in another meditation circle and that box and key reappeared, only this time I got the message. The key was certainty. The key reminded me of a period in my life, some of my darkest days, when the road ahead was not clear, everything I’d planned for my life seemed gone and I had every reason to despair. I felt those feelings again as I touched the key in the meditation, but I also felt that glimmer of certainty I had back then that if I just kept making my famous lists, putting one foot in front of the other, following my logic, everything would work out and in the end, it did. Actually, in the end, there were even unexpected gifts in the troubles. Call it my Higher Self, my Soul, God, Goddess, my intuition – whatever – I was being reminded in those guided meditations of my ability to persevere. Of my resilience. That good things are ahead and there are gifts in the suffering and challenges if we are willing to see them.
Kamala gave us an incredible gift.
Kamala gave us an incredible gift. It was 100 or so days of joy and hope. Remember her rallies! I quite frankly did not think I’d ever see this type of Rise of the Feminine in my lifetime, but we’ve had a glimpse now. It was a sliver of the potential we will one day achieve. They can’t take that away from us. You cannot un-ring that bell. While perhaps it’s not meant to be right now none of us are going to forget it. So…we’ve all been putting one foot in front of the other resisting the patriarchy for many years. Teaching, loving, being generous, sharing. We just go back to that. We soldier on in the resistance planting our seeds for the future. And there are many of us. Let’s carry that taste and vision forward. Let’s link arms. If you don’t have a community, find one. It’s very important to be able to have meaningful conversations with people who understand and hear you. Volunteer. Check out the local Unitarian Universalist congregation or maybe a Center for Spiritual Living New Thought center. Join a political party and participate. Start a circle or a book club and read interesting and forward thinking books. It’s really more important than ever to be with a tribe. It’s important to find joy and support to offset what might be ahead. And let’s not worry until we really have to worry. There is a lot of resistance out there and things might not go as sideways as we think. No point in putting all that fear and anxiety out into the world or into our bodies.
I joined a group that we’ve called the Eat, Talk, Laugh Salon. At our last meeting we watched a short film and learned about how dicey it was if you weren’t white living in Portland, Oregon years ago. I’m talking KKK dicey. All local law enforcement were members. And many of you may or may not know many cities in Oregon were once Sundown Towns where non-whites couldn’t get caught after dark. And look at Portland today. Oregon is reliably blue. Look how far we’ve come. Yes, change does happen way too slowly for some of us, but it is happening because we’re here making it happen.
Resistance is Not Futile. The Borg just wants you to think so.
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I didn’t join the ‘I believe Harris will win train’ because I couldn’t see how she could. We are a culture that demanded a ‘leader’ who would support money and power and we got it along with crazy. All the pieces fit.
As for not worrying – I think it’s impossible to be awake and not worry. Tough times are ahead – and we are not ready for any of it.
What I do agree with is the necessity of having friends with whom you can find support –
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Yes Sarah and not go along with any of it. Say no to 5G and everything “smart” which is code for cabal, this is such a set up, we are in a spiritual war against good and evil.
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Thank you for your response Sara. I understand the inclination to worry, but it does us no good. It sets a tone for our day, it disrupts our cells, distorts our perceptions and we start from an out of balance place when we’re faced with a challenge that needs a steady response. It’s also exhausting and coming from a place of fear. I don’t want to live like that for the next 4 years.
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Thank you. After the election, I was reminded I still had a life to live–and more. Often, I’d talk to my husband about my impoverished, rural childhood, which upsets him. It doesn’t upset me because it made me who I am and appreciative of everything I have. Reflection has also made me aware of all the struggles my widowed mother experienced living in the sixties, and seventies, and yet she persevered. I have to laugh because we all want our mothers to be proud of us, my mother spoke those much needed words when I chose to divorce my ex, a minister. So, even though we would prefer not to have struggles, they can break us or make us.
As for the patriarchy, it is a cornered animal, which is why currently it is at its most vicious. Before those who didn’t toe the line, were considered no threat. Now, there’s no action so low they won’t use to preserve status quo.
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Knowing this Morgan, we choose love over fear.
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oh so true – and being prepared is what we need to focus on – we probably have no idea what we are up against now
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Thank you Morgan for reading my piece and responding. I can relate to much of what you say and believe it. So many challenges turned out to have silver linings and gifts we might not have considered for ourselves, brought wisdom, insight, taught us resilience, confidence. We will endure and overcome this too.
Karen
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I love your positive thrust, Karen. I am having an extremely hard time right now just going about my business. I do love this: “And let’s not worry until we really have to worry. There is a lot of resistance out there and things might not go as sideways as we think. No point in putting all that fear and anxiety out into the world or into our bodies.” Great advice that I find impossible to put into practice right now!
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You are spot on Esther, we refuse to play into their chaos, love over fear is our way out.
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Thank you Esther for your response to my piece. No, it’s not easy having this attitude but I’ve found myself not tuning in so closely, not doom scrolling, focusing on non-political things more that bring joy, and waiting to see what happens and planning to respond how ever I can when we know what we’re up against. We can catastrophize til the cows come home but what good does it serve. We’re standing back and standing by. I don’t want to live in a state of fear waiting for the other shoe to drop.
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“Resistance is Not Futile. The Borg just wants you to think so.” I love this. Thanks, Karen.
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We should make that our mantra!
Karen
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What I know for sure is that what I know is patriarchal social/cultural conditioning was not God’s plan for girls and women, patriarchy was created by men for men, good to see women globally waking up to the script, the mental illness and suffering that patriarchy creates and re-member who we really are, God is who we are there are no separations, one is all there is!
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So true! Thanks Cate for responding.
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