Hello again!
I have emerged from my post-election stupor.
The foundation has been shaken, and there’s nowhere to hide.
Our country is morphing into something we’ve never seen before, and like many of you, I’ve been feeling uneasy and unsteady. Queasy even. Like how I felt every Thursday night for six months back in 1988. That was the year I worked onboard Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. Each Thursday night we’d sail from Jamaica to a private beach in Haiti, and that part of the cruise was void of interference from any land mass. Cuba to be exact. We were at open channel and the waves had their way with the ship…and with my stomach.
But back to morphing.
Change is one of the few givens in life as guitarist/vocalist/composer George Benson so poignantly wrote (and sang):
“Everything must change,
Nothing stays the same.
Everyone must change
Nothing stays the same…”
Change can be wonderful. It can also be ugly and uncomfortable.
We are thoroughly ensconced in some monumental changes. And if you’re like me, you’ve been wondering how we’ll manage. Get through. Survive. And the truth is I don’t know. I don’t think any of us do.
Thankfully, I have strategies to cope with monumental change, and they include radical self-care and doubling down on my spiritual practices. In this doubling down, I opened a book I’d read a few years back and rediscovered an article I printed from the internet. It’s from the Dalai Lama and it’s called Instructions for Life. It lists twenty ways to get good karma. His Holiness is quoted below:
” 1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three R’s:
– Respect for self
– Respect for others
– Responsibility for all your actions
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great relationship.
7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
19. If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.
20. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.
You can access the article in full below:
I think if each of us followed these instructions, I don’t suppose I’d be writing this article. Oh well. Humans.
Additionally, daily prayer and meditation, a walk and a stretch most days of the week, the company of good friends (and family when I can), good books, good food, a glass of wine or two, and nice warm bath round out the list of things that help me stay in peace.
And when I really need to release some anxiety and get girded for whatever battle is looming in the distance, I play my theme songs. I find myself gravitating to these at present:
Toto – One Road; Lalah Hathaway – Stronger; Alannis Morrissette – Thank You; Sting – Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot; Dianne Reeves – Testify; The Corrs – I Do What I Like.
No doubt, I’m still feeling wobbly, but I’m clear headed. I know what must be done to move our country past this great divide. We all have work to do. The work begins with me. I am choosing to be BE the love/peace/transparency/honesty/humility/strength I want to see in the world. I choose to refrain from trivializing, labeling, or minimizing those who seek to do those very same things to me. Responding to anger by adding more anger only makes more anger and cancels out whatever good intentions I may have had. I will stand in love, relentlessly work for peace, doggedly advocate for the truly disenfranchised and the vulnerable, and speak truth to power (my grandmother used to remind me that EVERYONE puts their underwear on one leg at a time) through my words and my art. And I will join with others who are doing the same. Because there’s so very much at stake.
Beyond that, all I can do is pray.
I will end by quoting President Abraham Lincoln’s “House Divided” speech, which he delivered to the Illinois Republican Convention in June of 1858.
“A house divided against itself cannot stand…I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided…It will become all one thing or all the other.” (http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/house.htm)
Until next time…