And so now, it seems like the Shadow is out in full force.  I still can’t believe that people would elect a person that not only is involved in something like 70 lawsuits but has validated all kinds of hatred, prejudice and divisiveness.  I can’t believe that there is a “drain the swamp” movement when the people supporting it don’t realize that the quicksand in the swamp is the person that they voted for.  In the past day and a half I have struggled with shock, horror, fear, anger (which always comes from fear) and just dis-belief that this has really come into being.  Not only do I feel extremely let down by my fellow countrymen and women, I feel so incredibly saddened that there are so many that are so unbelievably gullible or just plain selfish in the sense that they can’t see or care how this might effect the rest of the world.  I can’t help being reminded of an old movie about when the Snake Oil salesman comes to town.  He’s up on stage spewing his sales pitch to a crowd of awe struck, gullible, wanting to believe in a miracle cure-all crowd of people.

To be honest, it sickens me.  This morning a FaceBook friend posted how her-in this liberal city of Austin, Texas, her legal, Latino son-in-law was walking down the street and someone yelled from their car, “you’re going to be deported”! It’s started and not only here. Or, has it? Has it just started or has it just surfaced?  I guess that’s kind of the crux of it all for me.

And so, amidst all of my heartache and fears and disenchantment I realize that I have to find a way to deal with this. I have to ask myself if, in any way I have contributed to this present situation.  How might I have contributed to it-even unconsciously.

There’s the theory of “collective consciousness”.   I know that outwardly, there is absolutely no way I can support the mindset of the people that voted in this elected President.  But what about inwardly?  Did my fear help to create the reality?  Has my anger connected with the anger of others? Which brings me back to the Shadow. (sorry it took a while to get here)

What I’m realizing is that aside from being politcally active, one of the most important and powerful ways to confront and to deal with all of this is to come at things from Love.  With Love. To continue to work on my shadow-to continue to bring things to the surface and shed some light on them.  To continue to try and not only like myself, but to love myself.  I realize that  giving up alcohol was a huge step towards this-even though at the time I wasn’t seeing it from that perspective.  But, when a person is constantly struggling with an alcohol problem, beating themselves up over it, constantly and consistently trying to suffocate and extinguish their “light”- always running from their Shadow side, not only are we not truly living, we are not experiencing the best life possible.  And we certainly are not loving ourselves. I believe the only way to really come from love has to start with loving ourselves. While I don’t direct self-hatred at myself for drinking anymore, I do it in hundreds, if not thousands, of other ways every day. That needs to stop.  I want to heal myself.  I want to contribute to the healing of the planet-not only here in the United States.  I remind myself constantly that so many have it so much worse-but again, my fear is that we-Americans-will soon be in the same circumstances. I have also been reminded that not everyone shares my mindset! Well, imagine that! So many angry, unhappy people who have felt disregarded and discarded. Wanting a change.  Willing to believe almost anything in hopes that they will be benifitted. That their lives will improve. Unable or unwilling to see a much bigger picture. Standing in line to buy Snake Oil. Possibly paying for it with blood.

And so, I will continue to work on myself.  Continue to pray. To meditate.  To pray for all who are suffering in the world.  To pray for the people I love and most importantly, to pray for those that I don’t.  This is the hardest-but the most important. To pray and send love to those who would spew hatred. And yes, to pray for and send light to the President elect.  If I can find a way to quit adding an explicative after that one, I will feel that I have made a tiny bit of progress.

Here’s a link for an article on Collective Consciousness.  Some of the article may seem “a bit out there”, but it’s interesting. The Greater Picture – Collective Consciousness  You can also find many other thoughts on the subject by Freud, Jung and many others.

With Love