@lrinyo Thank you for the closet metaphor. When I read it, a few more issues at the bottom of my own closet showed up.
One question I have is: What do I do with this stuff, these shadows within me and within our collective?
My first thought in answer to that question: Look for them, see them, let memories of them well up, examine their origins, reverse them going forward, and forgive self and collective.
Stephen Levine:
Somewhere there is a basket
that contains all our failures.
It is a big basket. It wants to know
what to do with these.
Mercy has no use for them.
I like that metaphor.
What's more is that when those in power throw everything, out we can more easily see what is good and necessary, and what may genuinely be superfluous.
Normally I wouldn't hire a demolition crew to clean out my closet, but that's what we've got and it will certainly force us to reorganize and re-stock once we chase the crew out of our house. Which we will.
Biden said "Build Back Better" during his 2020 campaign. We can do that.
"A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn is, I believe, an exposé of the ugly underbelly of the American experience. I read it and was completely overwhelmed by Zinn's clear-eyed interpretation of our history, starting with the voyage of Christopher Columbus. Read it, and truly weep.
Along with out protests this weekend and the vets. Here is the largest anticorruption protest ever in Serbia today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRRF9179md4
Mi Chelle. ....Maya Angelou has always been my heroine, my mentor and touchstone guide. I find myself often thinking of her work. "Still I rise" It seems even more pertinent today to carry own with her words of wisdom and encouragement these days and times
Hang in there. It's been rough seas!
Thank you for these words.
Yesterday was a rough day. Without even reading the news yesterday, I found myself sobbing at one point.
What is so rough right now, isn't just that the Administration appears to be eroding our democracy and our rights, and, if allowed, (though they are not always allowed) coming after just about everything dear to most Americans (and our allies).
What is so rough right now is not knowing what to do next. How to comport oneself at this time.
Yesterday's decision on the part of some democratic leadership to vote for the unacceptable spending plan was an impossible situation for them, a kind of Sophie's Choice. (Did anyone see or read that book, where a young mother in WWII Germany was forced to choose between her two toddler children?)
I know many people here upset at how some dems voted. And that is everyone's right, to feel whatever they feel. We will never know what would have happened if the dems had refused to pass the plan. I would however ask people to bend over backward with providing the utmost respect to each other in this forum, even when their opinion is very different from yours.
I'm not sure that the situation the dems found themselves in was simple.
But even if you feel it was simple and you are disgusted with the choices made, I respect your opinion. Your opinion is sacred. I don't know what I would have done.
In any case, it is now done. We have to move forward or waste a ton of energy venting about it. The venting is toxic to others and it drains people's energy. Given the work needed ahead, who has energy to waste? (That doesn't mean you shouldn't share what is going on with you. Just do it mindfully, nobly, thoughtfully, kindly to all. And if you need healing thoughts sent your way, ask for it without venting. Just tell us you need it. We have plenty to spare.)
What isn't done is how each of us is going to navigate this situation going forward.
I am thinking now about what I have to do, (and perhaps you might also want to think about that for yourself). How I am personally going to navigate from here on in? How am I going to move forward? How are you going to move forward?
Since I've never found myself in a situation like this one before, I am trying to look at role models of courage who got through difficult times. MLK, RBG, Nelson Mandela, and many other brave leaders throughout history. I am also trying to clean up my own personal act, you know, like personal stuff -- health, exercise, sleep, well being. Can't move forward without that. I hope everyone will take good care of themselves. And go to the help need threads for healing support.
The floor has been pulled out from under us. We have to find new ground and a path through. If we can focus on the path forward, preserve our energy for positive action, and as @Tesseract and others here have suggested, positive thinking/intention, imaging, then I have hope about where this will all end up. Frankly, I am very hopeful in my visions of the long-term future.
@marigold The first Stars Wars movie was the first date with my husband in the summer of 1977. If I had a nickle for every time I saw a movie in this franchise, oh boy. Any way... I do love this message, thank you.
@jeanne-mayell It feels like my house is falling apart, it gets worse every day, in ways I can't even anticipate, I can't do anything about it, and I don't know when it will end (or what my house will look like when it does end). So I'm trying to do my best to live my life even though my house is falling apart.
My anxiety is at 1000 today, and was pretty high all weekend. This signals to me that something is coming, although I'm not sure what.
I am so ready for all of this to be over, but I don't think it will be for a long time. And who knows what we will be when it does end.
@lynn yes, I woke up w anxiety yesterday and it’s back today. Plus, today there’s an antsy feeling and as if I need to be alert/look over my shoulder. While it can be overwhelming at times, I actually started thanking my angels/guides for the “early warning system” and ability to be attuned vs being numb to human suffering like too many others. When I welcome the varied emotions, they simmer down more quickly. Just now writing/sharing is reducing the antsy angst I’ve had all morning. I’m accepting more that tremendous change clearly is upon the whole world and I thank my angels, guides, and ancestors for insight and protection. I ask for their help in channeling all I’m feeling and/or picking up and know that awareness can initiate temperance. They remind me that I’ve already experienced so many betrayals and abandonments and loss and truly am able to endure even more bc I can make some semblance of sense out of it now—psychically, astrologically, humanely—bc I can’t save people from themselves. I only can save my own soul in this battle btw good and evil.