Where there is love

So, America, Where do we begin? The rubble or our sins? Here we are, grappling with an election result we probably should have seen coming. Are we looking at the rubble or still naming our sins? 

So many sins. So many. 

My heart and mind are flooded with the wailing and the tears of the countless citizens of this great country who every day face prejudice and discrimination in unfathomable ways. Fear of our differences has turned us into a nation of paranoia and killing.  We live in an age where propaganda is more prevalent than fact and almost no one knows the difference. I sure can't pretend to know the difference myself. 

Facts. The fact is that this American nation, this democracy, this social (dis)order has much much healing to do. So much need to heal everywhere I look. There is not one human I know who if pressed to do so couldn't identify one or more ways they've been hurt, belittled, degraded or mocked by another subset of the population- whether it's on the grandest fear mongering scales of political attacks or in the day to day power struggles of women in the workforce. 

Even the most privileged white males among you have been dragging your feet into this viscous mud and pointing fingers at those who came before us as the reasons your entitled lives are not all you believe they should be. 

But lest I let myself sink into the mud and forget how to walk - I'm going to look up. 

I'm looking up at you, my dearest neighbor- who always has a kind word and a smile. I'm looking at you my friend the immigrant, who is raising her children here with such joy and love for all who cross their path. I'm looking at you transgender love of my friend, you who confidently put your true self first and love with your whole heart. I'm looking at you nine year old brown boy who is taught to stay quiet though one of the brightest of his age, that educated mind will serve you and your future well. 

I'm looking at me in that mirror, my weary heart hearing all of the fear in the world. Every bit of co2 we push out, exhaling our worries to sit on the wind together and build tensions. I'm looking at that weary heart and I'm smiling. I'm whistling a tune about the darkest days coming before the dawn. And I'm looking out, looking out toward that horizon where the sun is starting to rise on a new world order.  It's up to us to breathe slower, consciously look at what we are exhaling into the world before we leave it out there. 

For a while as the numbers were coming in tonight, I thought about Eric Garner. I thought about not being able to breathe under the weight of our collective Fears and misconceptions. So many sins. Where is the air? Where is the lifeline? 

Here's a quote to allow some air into the room....."Where there is love, nothing is too much trouble, and there is always time." ('Abdu'l-Baha). 

Our time together on this planet may be fleeting and crisis and anxiety may abound - but where there is love? There is always time.  There is patience. There is understanding. There is life. 

Friends, when you're staring at what looks like nothing but rubble and sins .... close your eyes. Close them to our differences, close then to fear. Look inside to your own sources of light (your neighbor? Your teacher? Your humble stranger who holds the door with patience?) - and when your heart has been flooded with light - move forward day by day into all the spaces 'Where there is love .. '