Post-Election Thoughts
Written the morning after the 2024 election — November 6, 2024
I've been up for hours processing the outcome of this election and feeling all kinds of feelings. Shock, anger, sadness, frustration, despair, and much more. I wanted to share how I am trying to approach this day and all the days to come.
I recognize that we are operating in an imperfect world with imperfect people. Despair, anger, frustration and deep sadness are going to exist. I was hoping the election wouldn't end up like this, but it did. Here we are. Many people are walking into today feeling like their humanity and identity didn't matter in this election and doesn't matter to the American people. People get to feel how they want to feel today and in the days to come. Let us be people who honor each other's humanity today, since many people feel like that didn't matter yesterday.
Today, I am hoping to show up as a safe and loving presence to college students who are going to be asking many questions about their own safety, their humanity, the safety of their loved ones, etc. Many of these questions have no clear or easy answers. That is just the reality right now. The best thing I can do is show up to listen, to understand, to have a heart of compassion and empathy and honor where they are. The least I can do today is that.
In order to show up as the type of presence I need to be today, there is work I need to do internally too. This morning I wrote down a list of practices that ground me. When the world feels like it is spinning out of control, I try to pause and think about things that can bring me back to the ground and back into my own body. This is how I am living into these things today: meditation and prayer, breathing, taking a walk outside, movement, music, being in community with people I love, being kind, finding something to laugh about. I will continue to lean on my faith and in a God I trust, even when the challenges are big.
None of this is easy today. The problems we have ahead of us feel impossible to navigate. But I can keep coming back to myself and the people I love. We belong to one another. Let us not miss that in these days to come.
Sending a lot of love May we be people who show up for each other.
