Three Truths and One Wish

1. Truth: This presidential election will bring change, no matter who gets elected. The only thing we can ever count on is change, it’s the nature of life. In this specific case, the cultural climate could change, so might the economy and so many other “big” things. Things might get better, they might get worse, but we know there will be some shift.

2. Truth: Whatever is different because of the outcome of this election, it won’t change my core values, and it most likely won’t have a significant impact on the way I live my daily life. My dogs will still need walked, I will still be a writer, a committed practitioner of yoga and meditation, I will still love Eric, I will still do my work, I will still be a woman, a human, and I will still try to keep my heart open.

3. Truth: No matter who is President elect when this is all over, no matter what else changes, I will continue to work towards cultivating compassion and courage, being less confused and more mindful, doing what I can to ease suffering where I find it, and inspiring others to do the same.

One Wish: That we shift from a culture of competition to one of compassion, that we let go of thinking in terms of “us” and “them” and instead develop a deep understanding that we are in this together, we share a common human experience, and that we know that even more important than our vote is our choice to be kind, to love, to keep our hearts open and do what we can to ease suffering in ourselves and in the world.

1. Truth: When I am running away from something for too long, I get too tired. Reality, life is asking that I experience some really hard things right now, and I’ve been resisting, avoiding, even rejecting it, but that only causes me more suffering.

2. Truth: When I’m too tired, my choices come from that confusion. I eat less healthy than I should. It’s too hard to put together a salad, peeling and cutting all of the ingredients, so I just eat the lasagne by itself, and I eat more of it than I need. If I’m too tired, it feels easier to buy and eat the gross lemon cookies from the store than to come home and bake the lemon raspberry bread that I’m really hungry for. When I’m too tired, I skip meditation practice because it feels easier to watch TV, to let my mind go rather than focus it.

3. Truth: The only medicine, the remedy is to stay with what is happening, to open my heart to it, to let go and surrender to it, and to get the rest, the nourishment, and the practice I need in order to be strong enough to stay.

One Wish: That I may keep my heart open, find the strength to do so, provide what I need, the care necessary to maintain this awareness, this wakefulness. I wish to remember what Fiona Robyn said:

In this life, with its impermanence and unpredictability and difficult-things-happening, we need all the help we can get. We need to develop habits that steady us, that provide us with nourishment, that remind us of the beauty around us even in the midst of chaos & loss.