Like many of you, the election is weighing on my mind. Heavily so, and darkly. How can it not with the bombardment of campaigning that comes into our phones, computers, televisions, and is staked on lawns and roadsides everywhere we drive?
My heart fills with dread some days, for what might happen in my nation and world if the other presidential candidate wins.
This morning I was reminded that most of my life will go on as before regardless of the outcome. I will sit with my directees on Tuesdays and Thursdays, tend my goats and gardens, attend Quaker worship, gather with family and friends, read and take walks, support various non-profit work in the ways I do. I will pay my taxes, and donate time and money to various groups that carry out work that aligns with my values. Granddaughter Eden will come spend a couple of nights before Thanksgiving and we'll bake and talk and go pick out our Christmas tree from the tree farm next door. We will gather on Thanksgiving with our family and be grateful for each other and how our intertwined storied lives have unfolded.
I was reminded that most of my life would go on as before by a relative who will likely vote for the other candidate. She also fears what might happen if my candidate wins. I can choose to hold her fear with tenderness, as she can choose to hold mine. We can decide that fear does not have to determine how we will live post-election. I wonder if who wins (important for reasons that validate our fears) may be less important than how each of us chooses to respond. Will we choose kindness? Will we choose to keep extending love and mercy to strangers and kin, to be grateful, and to seek understanding and empathy with those who fears are different than ours?
One of my daughters plans to watch a movie with her family election night, to keep from being glued to the updates. It seems a good reminder that we can choose how much we will let the election and its results define our days. It will not change my desire to live with integrity, and to trust that God always moves and nudges in the interstitial spaces of our lives, and that the outcome of this election will not thwart God's overarching plan to redeem and restore all that is broken and has lost its way.
Wednesday morning (or whenever the election is finally determined), regardless of the outcome I choose gratitude--for life as it is, which necessarily means full of hard things and also so much joy, marked by ugliness and also by incredible beauty, noted by things that die and also things that are born. I choose to lean into the reminder that we as a nation have weathered hard things before, and will strive toward kindness with my words and love with my thoughts and actions.
I have been so busy rallying for 1 specific election that my mental health has been affected. My sense of self. People are nasty. People who only know me for my passion of wanting to change the world around me.
My goal had to become that I act in a way that I could look Christ in the eye and not divert mine in shame. I couldn't lose my passion. There is to much at stake.
My prayers are that "my" candidate(s) win ~ locally ~ or it will seem as if all this was for spiritual warfare.
Gary and I have been praying over this election all year. We have so much peace about the results, whatever they are. We have also been praying for revival and a return to faithfulness among God’s people. Your words mirror my own. Praying for a peaceful spirit for all of us.
So timely and relevant. As I keep telling myself "It will be ok, it will be ok, it is God who is really in control".
Thanks, Lisa. I had some similar thoughts as I was trying to work through my fear and anxiety the other day. There are still plenty of kind, loving people in the world, and I’ll try to do what Mr. Rogers said and “look for the helpers!”
Thank you for this post, Lisa. 🙏 I really appreciate your reflections on the upcoming election. I am trying to focus on what I can control to keep the anxiety at bay. Your words are a balm.