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Prayer for You
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My Readers Mourn
In my newsletter, I asked readers: Report on the ritual of mourning you will carry out in the wake of Bush's re-election. Here are some of the responses. * My daily ritual after Kerry's loss, my loss, our loss, the country's loss, democracy's loss, is to remember love and beauty each morning before getting out of bed. I vow to understand that by taking a stand for diversity, against the monoculture I see in Republicanism, I define myself better and can better reach out in the name of social justice even from within a country that may be defined as the world's terrorist. Via negativa will be my practice to define what I do not choose to identify with, leaving I hope, what I choose to identify with: that that is beyond naming in service to the planet. Bowing deeply, in pain and sadness for now, Nancy Peden, M.A. http://www.livedlearning.net http://www.albionmillworks.com * 1. I will cry in my car where I will feel not even a sliver of suggestion to dial my grief down, or to stop. 2. I will make plans to learn Arabic. If the current powers feel the need to harass and destroy the Arab world, others of us will need to be mitigating forces. I won't let my country's name be smeared in MY name. 3. I will work very hard not to become that which I despise--the current administration's agenda of fear and hate I will not make my own. -Heather Parker * I will not fall into hatred. Nor will I fall into despair. Some things are out of our hands. To quote Paramahansa Yogananda, "Cosmic law cannot be stayed or changed, and humans would do well to put themselves in harmony with it." And so to get through these next four years... Buckminster Fuller has some helpful advice: "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change things build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." -Dulce Bell-Bulley Columnist and Astrologer http://www.holisticjunction.com/sites/AstrologyNow * Tenderly and with tears, I unearthed my John Kerry lawn sign from the front yard, carried it inside, pulled out of the staples, and with a salute, recycled its remains. I then ate an entire carton of Stonyfields Farm organic chocolate fat-free yogurt. It tasted good. -Mary Stephen Scott * I repeated over and over, in my head, "Bush is president for another four years. Praise God." I was obviously not thankful for the election's outcome but I wanted to remind myself to remain thankful despite it. Giving thanks in the face of adversity is a wonderful act of defiance, and a reminder that that which is good and holy in the world cannot be destroyed by one president. It also reminds me to keep my hope and faith. Once I had made sure that I had my hope and faith still intact, I imagined all the ways that things could get better than they currently are, and how I can change myself to accomplish those things. I came to terms with the knowledge that in the next four years I would have to become very strong, because I would have to spend plenty of effort not on complaining about my political enemies, but on making more political friends. We liberals were foolish, I think, in simply rallying our supporters and getting out the vote. Though it was an important and worthy cause, we've been as a whole too angry and outraged to realize that the majority of Americans didn't hate Bush, and that we couldn't just steamroll over the millions of Americans who still think that Bush is a good choice for president. We got a lot of people angry and willing to change things, but I'm afraid that in the process we alienated others who may otherwise have been sympathetic. We need to become stronger and steel ourselves for four years of aggressive kindness towards people who we'd previously written off as enemies. ~Samantha Crane * I first did a very pedestrian thing--I wept and wept. Then I got angry and decided that "I had had it." I fought long and hard in this campaign--canvassing, contributing money, poll watching, you name it. Everything seemed for naught. Then I read the e-mail your friend sent Eric sent. I also read an e-mail from a friend quoting Patrick Henry, saying that we cannot be sunshine patriots--that heaven might extract a heavy price for dear freedom, but that was so we would appreciate its value. I took that to mean not that heaven was vengeful, but that we have to keep the faith. I also realized this: I have to stop thinking in terms of "fighting." Every time the word "fight" comes to mind, I will replace it with love, as in "I loved the good love," as in "I loved long and hard in this campaign." I also realized that the astrologers were not wrong when they saw Bush's Saturn influence. We just misinterpreted the chickens coming home to roost as Bush being sent back to Crawford. What I now know it means is that he will have to stay and clean up the messes he's made--which I don't know that he's ever had to do. I don't wish him ill (and will keep repeating that until I know it down to my bones), but he has to be an adult and take care of the karma. Finally, I lit a candle in my front window. I will continue to light it while doing some heavy meditation. I know now that we will come through this, and that I will continue to "love the good love." -Colleen Frey * For the past year my front garden has been the home to seven large plastic dinosaurs draped in buttons promoting peace, signs begging regime change, and stickers extolling passersby to vote for Kerry. They are referred to as the "No War Dinosaurs." Everyday people stop to see what new button, sign, or sticker I've added to the mix. This evening, after work, after the sad, sad end to this dreadful day, I took down all the signs, stickers, and buttons except one. I lined the dinosaurs up with their backs to the street and draped them in black bunting. One lone dinosaur stood on top of a little hill facing forward. He wore the one remaining button, rusted, the oldest of the bunch: "No War." Thanks for giving me a place to share this. I too believe in the rituals of mourning and I also know amid this chaos will come opportunities for transformation. -Melody Schneider * I went to my circle in the woods outside of my church. I called the directions, cast a circle, invoked God and Goddess (especially Sophia) and asked for help. On a piece of paper, I wrote all of my foolish and possibly selfish hopes that had depended on the outcome of the election. I wrote about how I expected the election and thus John Kerry to do some of the work that I (and others like me) should be doing. I wrote about how I had hoped that "they" would make it easier to be me, etc. Then I burned that paper to let go of the illusions as I recited this: "I relax and c ast aside all mental burdens, allowing Goddess to express through me Her perfect love, peace and wisdom." Next, I read your poem. I chanted "Om shanti, Om kushi" ("I am peace and joy") until I felt the reality of the words. Then I thanked all the spirits all around and dismissed them. Then I did a little "yard work" around the circle, went inside and hugged my minister and went home. Think I'll make it now! -Sandra Dee Costa Foo Tribe Healer * With respect to Bush's re-election, consider this: he's been re-elected because WE (the "good" ones) still have work to do in our own judgments and shadows. If we continue to project Bush et al. as the Evil Ones, we will ensure that they or others will remain so and warfare of some sort will continue. We're being given an opportunity to examine our judgements and separatist viewpoints (rationalizing it under the hubris of "love") in order to see OURSELVES in THEM. And they won't disappear until we do, thank goddess. Once we allow this, perhaps we'll all find that they won't have such need for their "evil" displays. -zipher * I'll tell you how I feel. It's not mourning. It's something like grief, but not the heavy depression and melodrama. Not the sentiment. Not the loss. It's more like readiness. A warrior's readiness, or an athlete's, at the starting blocks. The past has disappeared. The future is present, but everything is in such balance that the word "future" has no sentiment, nor melodrama, either. The day before the election, a wise old warrior's voice whispered in my ear, "Just do it." Whatever happens ... just do it. Commit. You know what the path is. You know what the marks are. You know how to navigate. Now go. Just do it. And today, reading the headlines, the clear light of mourning-not-mourning started. Like a warrior's readiness, the calm in the bones, softness in the joints, a grounded stance, and steel-core compassion in the eyes. "Okay. This is it. This is how it is. This is where we are. This is where we begin." Just do it. You, reading this. You. Do It. You know what it is. You've read the books, taken the workshops, danced the spell, burned the prayers. Now. Do. It. No government will make it law, no politician will promote it, no leader will show us the way, no teacher will guide. The changes that must happen must be done by each of us ourselves, by ourselves, you reading this, this means YOU, your LIFE, is now the vessel and the vehicle and the weapon and the caress and the water of immortality. JUST DO IT. Do it in every moment, every word, every contact, every response, every dream. NOBODY is going to hand you the life you hoped for, the world you prayed for, the government you redesigned during your last sex act. Instead, YOU ARE GOING TO LIVE IT IN YOUR OWN LIFE EVERYDAY. That's the requirement from now on. Just. Do. It. Technique #1: Play it like a game, a game of relaxed precision, where the Zone is everywhere and the Goal is nowhere. Allow everything to be fun, even the dark stuff --hell, especially the dark stuff. Technique #2: Tell the truth, and call bullshit on what feels like bullshit. Gather your facts. Smile gently when you deliver your truth. Be at play. Remember, the past has disappeared. There is no future but what you create in each moment. If you've been waiting for Christ to come, download that Christ-ness into your body and your life right now, and live it. No big deal. Empower everyone you meet to do the same. Because this is where we are, this is where we begin, and there are no politicians to make laws creating a transformed world. We are now required to Just Do It. -Joy Shayne Laughter * Yesterday, I decided to wallow. Even though it made me feel guilty to bring myself to that level. I ate a lot of junk food (including Mcdonalds!). I listened to NPR all day long at work--taking in both the concession speech and forcing myself to listen to Bush's "acceptance" as an act of compassion. I went home and rented Jackass--an incredibly stupid, incredibly funny movie--and watched it while I ate more junk food. I didn't meditate. I didn't write. I tuned out. Today I woke up and set my intention for the day: to have a light touch with myself, with others, with everything. Today, I got back to my meditation cushion. Today I am letting the seed of yesterday's mourning slowly flower into something else, something ALIVE, something that is not yet born. Which isn't to say I still won't feel pain and disappointment or eat junk food from time to time. I realize now that the fact that I just can't understand those who voted for Bush is based in a fundamental misunderstanding in what it is I believe this society should be. So, it's time to get back to that--define it, narrow it down, and hopefully, be better able to convey it in another 4 years, when--how lucky is this--we get another chance! -Bethany Mattone * Once a couple years ago I was wailing to my best friend over the panic that set in after I'd had the courage to flirt with a certain guy, back when I still believed in things like "out of my league." My friend meant to respond, "There's no harm in flirting," but what she actually said was, "There's no flarm in hurting." I've had that phrase sitting on my desk ever since, until the glue on the post-it note has lost all its stickiness to dust and dirt and crumbs, trying to figure out what that phrase could mean. I knew it meant something, I just didn't know what. In the last couple of days, I've figured out what flarm is. Flarm is everything your brain says before it's the right time to say it. Flarm is everything your brain does that isn't real: manufactured imaginary conversations, assumptions made on scant evidence, fortune telling without including the possibility of good fortune as well as bad, foreseeing that isn't foreseeing at all but your own thick inner wall-like veil erected against the world. Flarm is the replay of events in a distorted way, dwelling on every if only, if only. Flarm is the angry refusal to keep breathing and the arrogance to conclude that soon there will be nothing good left in the world. Flarm is the automatic assumption of permanent failure, perversely driving us to be even more comfortable with the prediction of a future of permanent destruction, instead of our true future: the complex twists of good and bad that the world has always been and always will be. Flarm can also be composed of hope, because hope before its time is just another method to torture yourself. Making plans before your instincts are ready to vet them, no matter how good your intentions are, is just another cruel offence. So in these days when my inner clock and compass are whirling around at a sickening pace, I am being careful to watch my thoughts and every time I veer in any of those directions, I yell FLARM! and veer off. What does that leave me with? Real hurt, physical pain right down my center line, pain that makes me cry, that makes me want any kind of anaesthetic, anything from TV to drugs to cheap sex, that makes every previously normal action I take seem like a lie. It sucks. It really, really sucks. But it REALLY sucks. And I will not live in any other way. I don't invest in denial anymore. I don't deny the fact that this too shall pass. I don't try to jump to the future anymore, to make it easier on myself, because this is my path to the only future I want. And I may be hurting, but I'm not dying. When the time is right, I'll see you on the other side. -Clare * Having been unemployed for over a year and a half, time permitted frequent travel from Chicago to Racine, Milwaukee and Kenosha to canvass in one of the swing states. This experience provided insight that shall propell my action, perhaps for the rest of my life. Never before have so many groups (i.e. Sierra Club, NARAL, ACORN, etc.) joined in partnership for one cause. As one who has a fear of groups, it was exhilarating to participate in this nationwide upwelling of action to protect life and liberty. As powerful as it was, this vortex of energy has not yet become strong enough to create the change many of us envision. It will, however, be strengthened by the events that transpire during Bush's next reign, throughout which we will continue to be pressed to defend our freedom and our truth in the most joyfull ways imaginable. In pursuing our dreams ecstatically and lustily, we can help to raise the vibration of those who voted for Bush out of fear. By lifting this energy, we can manifest a revolution, deeply, rebelliously, with ingenuity and creativity. Onward! * My grief started the day after the election and culminated this morning, the 5th. I was overcome by not only an intense sadness but also anger and fear. Every one of my persecution thoughts of being a gay black man in this regime came to light and proceeded to run rampant with my emotions. The good thing is I know enough to reach out in times of need as opposed to trying to cope in isolation. I also resolved to get on with my day. I went to work yesterday and to school last night. The last thing I needed was to be at home alone with my fears. Talking to a friend of mine helped me to see that I was feeling helpless and the best cure for that is to do something. So I've decided to get involved. I just joined the Seattle chapter of the Human Rights Campaign a few minutes ago and will attend my first meeting on the 23rd. Yesterday it came to me that this is the time when I most need to open my heart to others. If I close myself off and give in to the negativity and despair, then they've one. By they I mean my fears. I also realized that having the Republicans in power is an excellent opportunity for me to practice love, acceptance and detachment. Now I'm looking forward to the next four years and the effects they are going to have on me and my path. -Damen * Throughout the day, I sought out the members of my tribe. We were none of us shocked, amazed or surprised. We are primarily of the opinion that all of these political hi-jinks are just brilliantly simple theatre. Of course, we had still hoped. Through the griping and stomping and pouting at this defeat, however, each of us came to the solid assessment that it's Totally Okay. It's okay because Kerry was just another effing politician anyway. It's Totally Okay because, the lesser evil may not have done any better. It's Totally Okay because we know the enemy we've got, and aren't likely to be disappointed in him. Our visions for our community are galvanized. Our yen for revolution is more powerful. Now it is our task to define and enact the sort of changes that will improve our culture and our world. I turned to the various members of my tribe in doubt and depression. In each face, I was reminded that the hope isn't dead, it's just OUR responsibility to keep it going. Power to the People! And, as one wise woman in my tribe was quick to point out, upon seeing my long face: It was a shitty world 3 days ago too. Now it's just more apparent that the people, not the politicians, will have to fix it. -Imma Lou Torgessen * Okay, I've basically been crying for two days nonstop. I've gotten out of bed just long enough to do the things I had to in the outside world, and then went back to bed. This morning, I lay in bed again, looking for direction or distraction online, feeling heartache, and I thought to look at your website. I was overwhelmed with gratitude. As I read people's different contributions, I gradually started to feel something awaken in me--this fragile baby hope. And this clarity, waking up to my own responsibility. This election makes our work suddenly much clearer. No more scapegoating Bush for all the darkness in the world, and no more hope for a get-out-of-jail-free card, that Bush would lose and all the problems would be easier. Instead, I see it is more than anything my work to continue to plumb the depths of my own darkness, and learn how to love. I was raised in a fundamentalist church and family. A particularly violent, angry and judging father-god came out of that experience. I have spent a decade trying to heal myself, and even recently have made huge steps at seeing and overthrowing the nightmare god in my heart. And then yesterday it seemed that the world had chosen that god to be king--not just Bush, but everything surrounding the election, the angry fearful voices crying "morality" and judgment. I was paralyzed with grief and fear, feeling my own life and work to be irrelevant, pointless. This morning I wept new tears as I read your website, seeing that indeed surrendering my nightmare and learning to love myself and the world are the ONLY things that matter. Everyone one of us has this Divine work to do. They are gifts, these signs along the way pointing more clearly to the path. At this moment I can actually say thank you to my shadow self, and thank you to George Bush, and truly mean it--these beings accepted this karma, took on the sacred job of carrying darkness to me so that I would not lose the path. Saturn, shadows, darkness, all benevolent forces here to guide me through fire into love. I am amazed to feel this! Stunned. Thank you. Thank you for this community you've created space for. Thank you to that community for speaking words of hope and love and strength, when I felt most broken. Thank you. I think I can get out of bed now. -Denise Huizenga ************************* Dear Beauty & Truth Warriors, My friend Eric Traub wrote me this email late on election night. I wanted to share it with you. -Rob From Eric Traub: To Us, I sit here in the wee hours, unable to go to bed, as the election hangs in uncertainty. I write because I feel pulsing in me a deep sense of responsibility for life. If you are receiving this note, you are not a Bush supporter, and you share other values with me and those who received this message. You are, as I would put it bluntly, on the side of life. You have special, intimate connection with life. You have seen certain truths, and so you fight for love. So I am sending out a midnight message to my extended family because I feel that we need to talk with each other at this hour. This evening as the election returns began coming in, my 14-year-old daughter called me filled with anxiety. She was scared about the returns indicating that Bush was ahead. I did the fatherly thing and soothed her fears. Then she asked a poignant question: What happens if he (Bush) wins? I answered that we get up tomorrow morning, no matter who wins, and we have work to do. We embolden our hearts, we remember why we are here and what we committed to, and with great love, we go to work on behalf of life. No matter what. The world, really, us, the human race, still has a long way to go. READ THE REST HERE. |
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© 1995-2008 -- Rob Brezsny. All rights reserved
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