On a day when so many feel much is at stake
I pray we remember nothing is truly at stake.

The things that matter most persist.

Both sides have tried to convince us:
“This is the most important election of your lifetime.
Depending on the outcome, something will cease to exist tomorrow.”
We have heard this before. We will hear this again.
Neither is true.

May we remember to put this day into perspective.
We may fear the times we live in,
But they are not as dark as times that have gone before.
May we not be manipulated by candidates preying upon our fear.

May we remember that our identities are not tied to a political party
Or any other kind of label.
All labels are facades of the ego.
We are something deeper.
Something more integrated
Not so easily divided into categories.

Today, emotions will run high.
Tempers will flare.
Tears may fall and despair may rise.
When others react, may we soften.
Each of us carry wounds. Each of us fears something.
Polarized media feeds it.
Algorithms reward it.

But we have not been given a spirit of fear.
We have been given a spirit of love and power and a sound mind.
Not external man-made, power-seeking power,
Not the power of a state office.
Rather an inherent, internal power to be whole.
Not intellectual intelligence that assumes the right way to think and vote.
Rather soundness of self-control and discernment in complicated times.
May you take a deep breath.
May you hope.
May you remember.

Our task is to hold ourselves fully present in the spaces we inhabit,
regardless of who sits in any elected office.

Go home.
Love yourself, your family, your neighbor.
Get up tomorrow and labor on.
Pray in a way only you can express.
Invite Divine Presence.
Lay down your ego, which causes wars—
both inside our being and externalized with those we love most.
Seek shalom [which is translated peace, but really means a wholeness of being].

Our task is to press ever deeper into the mystery,
realizing all this chatter
about who is in and who is out,
distracts us from knowing we all deeply belong.

So may you go into your polling place following your convictions,
but may you leave carrying humility—
a willingness to admit what you don’t know.
Refrain from judging others.
Political issues and convictions can be complicated.
So are the stories of those who cast their ballots.

May you leave first and foremost carrying love.
Always love.
Love for those who vote like you.
Love for those who don’t.
Love for those who didn’t vote at all.
Where it matters, we are all the same, carrying divinity in our very DNA.

Your job is not to fix a nation or a city or a neighborhood
Or even convince just one person to vote like you.
Your job is to hold your post in the spiritual realm
To raise your awareness
To enter deeper levels of consciousness
To invite true presence
And to know that you are held.

Abundance holds you, on all sides.
What has been true forever, will still be true tomorrow,
and in January, and four years from now,
and when time has ceased to exist.

You will be held then.
You are already held now.
You are already whole.

Shalom

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Be well.