You Can Do This Hard Thing

Opening Geodes - And Other Things That Might Be Helpful

I decided to do an audio recording to accompany this post. These are times when personal connection is so important. The last two days have been rough for 1/2 the country and a good part of the world. I’m not making any big plans at the moment. I don’t know what is going to happen. But I do know it is very important in this moment to take sanctuary, to gather my resources and prepare for the work ahead. I know that I must be intentional about self care, to feel all the feels, and use all my healthy mental, physical and spiritual tools. I know its import to stay in community connection, and that has been helpful to begin to take small symbolic actions. It has been helpful to seek out beauty and to notices the metaphors. I am finding it comforting to remember the ancestors and to deeply appreciate everyone who worked, hoped and organized a movement that is not over. It has also been good to plant something this week and contemplate how it will grow in the spring -as things always do in the spring.

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Gathering & Taking Sanctuary, Quiet Time & Trusted Community

I’ve taken quiet time as needed, but I’ve also been intentional about connecting with trusted online and in-person community.

I’m starting out with smaller groups of trusted people - because as I wrote in the song Sanctuary “It’s going to take some time until the world feels safe again”

I was in a big grocery store yesterday. I found myself looking around and feeling very unsafe. As a woman, it is hard to feel safe around people who just gave a thumbs up and go-ahead to an abusive bully and sexual predator who is showing serious signs of mentally instability. I stood there wondering who I could trust knowing that many of the people around me just gave majority lawmaking control to a candidate, vice candidate and party that views women as subhuman. I teared up right there in the canned goods aisle - because I know how hard it will be to find my way back to trusting people in my own community, because I know this is where the spiritual rubber meets the road if I truly want to live out a life of love made visible in this divided world. Because I know that Love, transformational love, will inevitably call us to be better people than we feel we can be in that moment. I am willing to rise to this challenge, I know you are too. But its going take time and giving ourselves a bit of grace in the process.

But just then, right there in between rows of beans and tomatoes, I caught from the corner of my eye a woman who looked all the world like my funny, brilliant, wickedly wry friend Julie. Julie passed beyond the veil of this world earlier this year and I have deeply missed her unfiltered and funny takes on the world. My heart leapt and I did a double take, but quickly realized that it was not my friend, but a woman who could be Julie’s doppelgänger. I smiled because it felt like a sign or at least a reminder of the continuing presence of decent and trustworthy people in this world, a reminder that the cloud of ancestors are holding space here with us whispering, “Live well, live bravely, find your water source, keep planting seeds. We have known loss too - lift your head up - you can do this hard thing.”

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Seeking Out Beauty and Metaphors

geodes I opened today...one looks like wings.

I don’t usually open the abundant geodes I find around my house - except maybe when we have kids visit. But yesterday I hiked down to the creek and collected a couple.. It felt good to bring a hammer down - to watch what was hard and immovable crack open. It was good to see the beautiful crystals shining in the autumn sun. I will not let this take my joy, or limit my ability to see awe and wonder and the beauty that is always waiting to be found. One geode was full of glowing crystals. Another was was older and more mossy, and when it fell apart it looked like wings. All I could do is say Amen, Amen to stones and moss, to the light shining on hidden mysteries, to wings that appear when we need them most. Amen

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Remembering That The Mountain Remains

Photo by Helen Biler

Another friend who is teaching in New Zealand, texted me images of beautiful bay on the south island that is surrounded by misty mountains. “Beauty is still here, it didn’t go away. Sometimes the fog rolls in and obscures the mountain - but the mountain is there - always there.” My friend Barbara Kingsolver Facebook message on Nov 6 is the similar reminder. The sun is still there, even during the darkness of a full eclipse. You can read it here.

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Feeling all the Feels

I’m allowing myself to grieve (a lot of tears y’all…a lot of tears). I’m using all my mental health, IFS and spiritual tools. I’m allowing myself to be righteously angry. I’m not good with getting angry. It’s taken a lot of therapy to learn how to let it come, and find my way back to center - and remember that I am angry not because of what I hate, I am I’m angry because of what I love. It is ok to allow myself a moment of mamma bear who is roaring because something she loves has been placed directly in harm’s way. In some spiritual communities, getting angry is frowned upon, it’s not enlightened or seemly- and it is true there is a danger in rage that narrows our vision and options. Unprocessed rage can leads us down dark avenues. But anger is human, we can feel what we feel…then transform it into energy for loving action.

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Take Some Small Doable Action Today

I;m taking some small doable actions…because in small daily action there is hope, power and agency. I made a contributions to the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, The American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom and to a couple of Progressive News sources Common Dreams and Reasons To Be Cheerful.

Plant Something - Planting a seed or bulb is an act of hope and faith.

This week I helped prepare beds for planting garlic. Nature has not given up. Stepping down on a broad fork felt like an act of faith.

Good things will grow and there will be spring. Maybe I’ll plant a few tulip bulbs tomorrow.

Maybe make a point to plant something this week

I picked up my next banned or challenged books to read - The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates

I picked up a sycamore leaf and wrote “Love Prevails” on it. Its sitting in my office.

Walking my fuzzy, goofy dog in the autumn woods. Get outside everyone…find something that makes you smile or laugh. Humor is a balm.

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Trustworthy Online Community

Reading Parker J. Palmer’s Facebook posts

Reading Courtney Martins “The Examined Family” Substack Posts

Reading Phil Gulley’s Plain Speech Substack posts

Reading Diana Butler Bass The Cottage Her Thursday video is lovely, comforting and human.

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Encouraging Other Women

Original painting by Julia Rogers

I particularly want to send some light to the community of older women who have fought all their lives (often against all odds) to prove women can and should be in positions of leadership. Your contributions still stand sure and true. There are many shoulders we stand upon to get this far. Your work and your lives will bear witness and encourage the next generation of strong women for the movement forward. Amen to you sisters! We’ll keep moving forward.

I want to send some light to the community of younger women, who got involved, organized and leaned into their power. This is only the beginning. You are great with love, you are great with power. Amen to you young sisters…we keep moving forward.

Today we hold one another’s hands and say, “ my friend, grief this deep is hard as stone. Hang in there. We can do this hard thing.”

Yes we can….beloved, yes we can.

-Carrie

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Question

What has been helpful for you? Is there a story of beauty or remembrance or something so real and true it reminded you of who you are and what you love? What is challenging you? Are there ancestors that encourage you in this moment? Share an amen moment if you’ve had one in the past few days.

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