The world feels precarious and upended, doesn’t it? After the tumult of the election and the reactions from both sides of the fence, I feel as if we’re all dice that have been put into a cup, shaken furiously, and spilled out willy-nilly onto the craps table.

The past year has been, far and away, the most tumultuous year I have ever experienced. The events of last week have done little to alleviate the fragile state my emotions were already in.  Today I wonder if my anxiety and upset about this election have perhaps been disproportionate, a reaction based on the culmination of a year’s worth of angst and unhappiness. I read something online the other day about grief being “love with no place to go.” I wonder if I have channeled a lot of grief into anger and anxiety about the state of political affairs. 

I spend a lot of time wondering these days.

Honestly, these are days to try men’s (and women’s!) souls.

Can you remember a time when our nation has been this divided? The airwaves sizzle with anger, people are defensive and tempers are on a hair trigger. No matter who wins this presidential election, I feel like we have already lost so much as a group of united states.

“Perhaps this is grief’s paradox - that in acknowledging the wound in our hearts, in tending with mercy to that which is breaking open within us, we are also given an opportunity to undertake the work of becoming more fully ourselves, committing even more deeply to our own path.” ~Katrina Kenison, Moments of Seeing