I don’t want this to sound all melodramatic but I had a terrible night’s sleep. I woke up with a profound sense of loss and despair.
I am committed to meditating in the morning before my day gets started whenever I can and did so again this morning. It was hard. As many times as I tried to return to my breath and the present moment, my mind had other plans.
Meditation practice teaches us to acknowledge what we are feeling by simply naming it without judgment. I was sad. Really sad – to a point that seemed disproportionate to what I was sad about. After all, we still live in a democracy. We still live in a nation of freedom and great opportunity.
But I am sad for my children, my nation and my world because I think this election has revealed a deeper truth in which in the midst of unrest, unease and, in many cases, pure hate, it is easier and more acceptable to choose fear over hope.
And so I continued to meditate and come back to the breath – over and over again. Man, this was the worst meditation session ever. Until it came to me – this is not for us to suffer with. This is not for us to attach to our own fears, our own unease or our own hatred.
We must choose love.
Our nation is merely a reflection of the nation within ourselves for each of us has the hope and the fear, the love and the hate, the joy and the sorrow all woven together.
We must choose love.
There is no other option. We cannot look to others, leaders or otherwise, to choose for us.
We must choose love.
But we have to dig in – and dig deep.
We have to show up – fully present and more than we have ever done before.
We have to be uncomfortable and extend ourselves beyond our own borders of insecurity.
We have to make our beds, clean our dishes, groom our lawns and mend our own hearts in the process.
We have to forget about our homes, our 401Ks, our failed relationships, our jobs and our regrets.
Most of us will not be here within a mere century – a simple blink in time. What we leave can only be left out of love otherwise we won’t have anything of real value that anyone will want.
There is no other option.
We must choose love and we have to do it starting now.