Living a life that's Wirth it.

I wrote this poem based off my fears of our future. Fears for people I love, fears for our country, fears for all countries, fears for our earth.

I also have fears sharing this poem, as it is vulnerable for me to make public some of my thoughts and opinions. I have a lot of trauma and bad history around this very thing. I wrote this poem originally for myself and shared only with one friend. Then she shared a beautifully vulnerable blog post she wrote, and I was moved to take action.

Please. Please. Take a second to stop and think about the two scenarios of what life could look like after November.

One scenario I see; people die. Not just from maternal mortality, or lack of prenatal health care, but from lack of ability to be who they are. I fear for the humans who will go into hiding, flee the country, or for the lives that may end.

In the other scenario, I see a place where everyone is allowed to be who they want to be. Still respectful, and honoring of others. Not unsafe. I see people who don’t agree on how lives should be lived, but honor the fact that they get to choose how to live their life- and so does everyone else.

I used to be ‘on the other side’. I do not have any hate or ill-feelings towards anyone who still is. My vote was persuaded by the people around me. I did not know how important it was, I voted out of fear, I voted out of ignorance.

I plead people to stop and think. Why does ANYONE think they have the right to tell ANYONE ELSE how to live? If we are not killing anyone, and we are paying our taxes, and being contributing members to society- why does someones bodily choices, gender identity, choice in partners, or color of their skin matter?

I listened to a very poignant podcast by my favorite people on this earth: We Can Do Hard Things by Glennon Doyle, Abby Wombach, and Amanda Doyle. They talk about many, many hard things. This particular episode titled, “The Embodied Path to Healing Trauma with Resmaa Menakem” was a game changer for me. We have so much embodied, generational trauma that guides our actions on a daily basis that we do not even understand or know about. The thoughts we think, the judgements we pass, the reaction to clutch our bag tighter… These are our bodies living past traumas. Some of them our own, some of them from 100s of years ago. We will not change our future until we ‘wake up’ and begin to heal these traumas. We have to recognize them and honor them. We have to understand how they manipulate our choices. We have to understand how they are affecting our world.

I really really work to imagine each day a brighter tomorrow. Not only for myself, but for my children, and their children. Carrying the trauma and allowing ourselves to be controlled by forces outside our own minds will not get us there.

When Jesus met people shunned by society; he welcomed them in. No matter who your god is, I don’t think they want us to be in control of anyone else…..