Today is definitely the day.
Today, as so many have joined me in waking with their hearts ripped open with experiences of shock, disbelief, bewilderment, anger, grief, fear in almost a kind of stunned silence, feeling waves upon waves of emotions coursing through our hearts in the wake of the presidential election yesterday, I am drawn to write.
Clearly, the sword of severance and question threatens as we walk further into a severe time of antagonism in our Nation and world. This opposition is felt amongst the people, inside our own feelings at times, in our beliefs as a Nation, in our experience of what it is to cause change responsibly, and more. The traditional two party political system threatens to tear us apart as a people, perhaps infiltrating core facets of our personal lives more than ever before.
Complicated feelings wrestle within and we are left confused and dazed or angry and withdrawn.
I have long known myself to believe in love at all costs but days ago noticed those very ideals being hijacked by feelings that contest that and in that, I felt horror and a disgust in myself, and felt the threat to my own values. I felt feelings of hatred hover and felt an avoidance of people who might be Trump fans… even sensed a fight arise in me, though I chose not to act on any of that. This, my friends, was eye opening, and terrifying. These are aspects of my shadow that I desperately wanted to deny. For days they brought me to fear and I wanted simply to blame Mr. Trump.
Do I love these aspects of my emotional body? No.
Are they a part of my wholeness when I am at conscious choice around how I respond to them? Yes....if I didn’t have them inside of me I could not recognize them in others.
Have I unconsciously projected them on others? yes.
Particularly in this campaign? Yes
A dangerous element has infiltrated our Nation, our communities, some families and even our own psyches. This element is capable of inciting violence, defense and blame, and normalizes hatred, name calling and disrespect. This one invites projection.
This is a perilous moment in our history….and, I dare say, could be a potent invitation as well. Gulp!
Could it be that one aspect of the shock that so many feel as a result of the election of Trump, is that we are all sitting under a kind of glaring exposure to our own unclaimed shadow aspects? And its so frightening that this man who blatantly ignites and stirs our shadow pots now sits in the most powerful position on the planet? As C. G. Jung said, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” Is this tremendously disappointing and frightening moment in history also an opportunity for becoming more conscious?
I have long suspected that things were going to have to get much worse before they got better, and well friends, we might very well be being ushered into that “much worse “ time. As I like to say, just because we are projecting, doesn’t mean its not true…so with the change over of power in our country it is very likely to get even uglier, more divisive and painful, there will be loss, and fear amongst us will likely reign. Strangely enough it seems to me that what we have witnessed historically is that humans seem to need a certain amount of pain or ordeal to bring them to their knees in order to really gain perspective and learn. Thank you the Donald, perhaps you will also, one day, invoke a beneficial revolution. So yes, we are facing hardships we cannot imagine in our political systems AND, there are opportunities for all of us to step up and become stronger inside of this regime.
I wonder, can we in our varying responses to this situation, pull back far enough to see a wider perspective…can we vision a never before seen future which, if we pull together, might be dreamed into reality? Can we be large enough to, rather than sinking into despair (or gloating in victory) come together to hold, protect, love, communicate and exchange ideas with care and responsibility, rather than falling prey to building walls in our own hearts because we cannot process or digest the multitudes of feelings we are trying to navigate internally in the midst of it all? And can we look deeply into ourselves and claim something back from the screen that Trump is so generously providing us for our projections?
We need each other. As Hillary said, we are Stronger Together. This is NOT a time to be divisive and fall unconsciously into shadowy realms that mirror the painful blaming ways brought us sorrow in the first place. No, let’s come together now and touch each others heart and listen deeply and share possibility, even on a very private level vs. a political level. Lets be grass roots and sink deep into the fertile soil that this could be!
After being on the phone with several friends this morning, sharing our fears, hopes, hurts and more, I opened the door to my deck and stepped out into the streaming golden sun’s shine. There to my left in utter contrast to the dark brown cedar shingle, was a lime green Praying Mantis (“mantis” comes from a Greek word of the 17th century meaning Prophet). I felt it teaching me a way to be with all of this....
First, go inside,
then hold onto an Other who can hold you up…
be silent and listen.
Pray with wide eyes….
Climb higher.
(hours later I found it inside!)
Go further inside.
Did you get it?
We are stronger together.
Pray.
Love.
May Love, kindness and clear vision reign....