Think8 Women

I spent the world-changing night of Tuesday with Mark and a precious friend huddled over two screens and a bottle of scotch. We stayed until the bitter end. And bitter it was as block after state block turned red on the map. Horror seeped in, clogging our veins.

For weeks I had been saying he would win. No one believed me.

Mark assured me the polls said… and that people would not… could not… but I knew in my bones. My own family staunchly voted in this new ‘leader’ of the free world along with half of the other people in the states.

Devastated in the wee hours of that morning I wrote Katherine and Sue, both dear friends, expressing my pain. But I went further to challenge us to out-create this… My work with women is more important than ever. Now more than ever we need to strengthen and fortify women, our mothers of sons and daughters. Just as your own soul’s work is important.

Now more than ever we need to give future generations a way to reclaim their own power and wisdom to be able to hold their position in space. We will need inner fortification for the coming four years, perhaps longer. Every bar of decency and honesty has been lowered and trampled. There is a new norm and it is so low you can no longer see it.

By morning both of my friends had responded. I want to share their wise words.

Katherine quoted my lines (in bold) and then responded (in italics):

“The world as we know it is changed forever.”

“More true than ever. The most important decision for all of us is whether we want the old world or the new world to be the basis for our reality. The choice is pivotal, the journey is not black and white, to the point where it may feel we are making that same choice over and over until it sticks. The noise of the outside is an expression of the old. The more we enter the noise, the more we see its impact in our worlds.

“We need to out-create it.

“BANG ON. We can’t take anything from this world; there is nothing to take. Every juicy drop of goodness, every morsel of joy and wonder comes from a place far beyond this world. So! We create. We push through, and we get it done.

“The key: invest your energy, your focus on what matters to you most. The rest is an investment that holds no return, instead great loss. Genuinely, that has not been more true than now.”

“There is no sorrow in me about the election results. It is a call for the work we are doing. It is simply an activation point. We are here, and movement is happening. This is why we are creating together.”

My friend Sue, a Jungian Therapist and Professor in Denver wrote:

“I stumped for Hillary yesterday, knocking on doors in lower SE, yet white area.  I saw it then as these working class folks, ALL registered as Dems, time and again told me they had voted for Trump.

“I was devastated!! But still held out hope wearing my pantsuit and believing in a promised victory. Racism and Sexism alive and well….  And, this underbelly had to exposed, it’s been in the shadows too long, all over the world.

“Hold on dear, light and love will eventually prevail!!!  ‘Herstory’ and ours, is NOT over yet.

“We must continue to bring light and love in our work, in our families, and in our communities.

“We must critique, but still love, these disenfranchised and wounded people, who make up this underbelly.  That’s all we can do and it is incumbent upon us to “Go High”!!”

Today Sue wrote again:

“As to the underbelly, I remain a firm believer in the necessity of this voice being heard AND contained.  I want to do my part in listening.

“I held a healing circle in my Theories of Counseling class Wednesday night, asking my students to both express their feelings and to commit to how they would be agents of change for their values.  Very powerful!

“As for me, I will continue serving food to the homeless on Saturday’s and I am beginning to volunteer for a refugee resettlement and training agency. I made that call yesterday.

“I reminded of the prophet Micah…

Do Justice 

Love Mercy

Walk in Humility 

“I will continue to be active in the political process …. the Electoral College must be re-evaluated. As Americans in my circles, we are evaluating how we can effect change from a place of love and generosity and welcome!!”

I found comfort in their words and actions. I ask myself and I ask you– what do you and I need to do for ourselves?

Gather with friends. Speak. Grieve. Affirm your right and honor for action. Find your balance. Hold your position in space. We see what we see. We know what we know. Don’t allow your knowingness be assuaged.

And finally… create, create, create.

Now, more than ever we need to ring the bell, the one that’s cracked… remember… that’s how that light gets in.

Love and courage,

 

Nancy