Let’s talk about the state of the world, shall we?
Rather than being depressed about the things that frighten me and the things I wish weren’t so, I’m choosing to be filled with hope for a better future.
I’m choosing to trust in our collective power to create something more perfect.
I find hope in the ignition of the younger generation’s #marchforourlives, the way they are slowly but surely dismantling the NRA through strategic pressure placed on its funding and its social supports.
I find hope in people who care about affordable access to health care and ending corruption in politics and basic human rights like valuing black lives and treating children and refugees with compassion, dignity and love.
I find hope in Mr. Rogers reminding me to look for the helpers after tragedy, because they are always there.
What you choose to believe and what you choose to vote for has always mattered. Now, perhaps more, it comes into sharp focus that your entire life is a vote for the world you want to create.
Not only the ballot this Tuesday (which is critically important), but every choice. Every dollar. Everything you choose to support or ignore.
My own ultimate goal is to live my life well—with love and intention—according to my own definitions and values that radiate from the core of me. And to be a witness and a friend to others, doing the same for themselves. Ultimately, it is that simple.
But we are human. We are so complex. Complicated and varied and nuanced. Achieving my goal is so simple, but it is not always easy.
Everything is connected. The internal is a metaphor for the external is a metaphor for the internal.
The way we live our lives is activism. A statement. A demonstration. Even in the quiet moments, even if I can only control myself. Especially when I understand that I can only live one life, and that is my own, and there is no one else to use my vote or my voice if I don’t stand up and use them myself.
The absence of a choice is still a choice.
The absence of a vote still has an impact.
We vote in elections.
We vote with our dollars.
We vote with our time.
We vote with our attention.
We vote with our precious energy.
We vote for love, or we vote for fear.
Your vote matters.
Your vote matters.
Your vote matters.
Because all the votes together determine which people and which ideas and which companies and which governments, will earn a place in our future.
Your vote is constantly co-creating the reality you are living in, whether you are consciously using it or not.
When you see it all this way—the world, and how your vote fits into it—nothing is mundane anymore. For moment, you can see the sparkling, shimmering edges of magic and possibility revealed beneath the dull mask of the everyday, the rhythms and routines that make up our minutes and days and years.
Your vote is your power. Whether you choose to use it or not.
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”
Alice Walker
Let’s use our votes on with love and intention.
We start this Tuesday. This is my favorite website to find your polling place and who will be on the ballot so you can do your research. (But if the f-word offends you, I invite you to Google it.)
Happy Voting Day to all of us!
Photos via Unsplash
