WATCH my prayer for breath and perspective
Dear Friends,
The last 48 hours have felt as breathless as the last four years. We have wept and prayed and grieved and raged and fought and voted and got out the vote. We the people, across race and place, turned out in record numbers to swear in new leaders who will govern for all of us. This is something to celebrate.
I know that many of us wanted more: We wanted a clear repudiation of the cruelty, terror, and tyranny we have witnessed and endured. The closeness of this race has served as a painful reminder that the value of a life in this country is not guaranteed if you are not white, or do not belong to a particular class that was long ago deemed elite.
It is important to make space for this pain. If you are hurting, your role is to love yourself well. Ensure your safety and that of your loved ones. Honor your grief through sacred ritual. Use your safe containers for rage, whether screaming into a pillow or dancing or shaking or sharing with a trusted friend. Find brave space in community to help you carry all that you are carrying. Your life matters.
There are also ways to show up now to help ensure our democracy works for all of us.
- Contact your local officials to demand that every vote must be counted. We must ensure our election officials have the time they need to count every vote.
- Gather in brave space. Our partners at Dream Corps. are hosting Dream Circles every Thursday evening, 7pm ET. Come for community and to process how this election season has impacted you.
- Prepare to mobilize. We will hold the line. We will take to the streets in peaceful demonstrations if necessary — until the outcome of this election is accepted, and there is a peaceful transfer of power.
Not now, but soon, it will be time to lift our gaze to those who voted against us — our neighbors, our co-workers, our family members, and when we wonder about them, we can begin that work of understanding them, and show them that they too have a place in the nation that we are building, a nation where everyone belongs, even those who don’t want us to belong.
For now, let us hold fast to each other and to the vision of a nation that the promise of democracy inspires. A nation in which we strive to protect the dignity and the wellness and the safety of all. It is the America longing to be born.
Breathe and push,
Valarie
Artwork by @Lisa.Vollrath on Instagram for @Amplifier
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