I was in the air on election eve. When I awoke in the morning to the shocking news of the Presidential election, I turned over and rolled back to sleep—believing I was in the middle of a dream or nightmare. But the news was the same after I awoke for the second time and from that moment I vowed to turn off the news ongoing.
A big decision. I know.
Let me explain:
The timing was interesting. I was healing from a toxic marriage and actively working on resolving questions having to do with choice and relationship. I was focusing on life direction and spending a lot of time looking at the decisions we make and the cause and effect at play in the universe. With the election over, I started to look at how consciousness had been asking for this election. It had also been asking: “How can we have a democratic process with less than half the population voting?”
It was all a lot to process. And I felt like I could no longer be a party to the abuse and violence taking place in our culture. As my friend and profound mentor Dr. Robert (Bob) Kimball used to say: “the category of things is getting in the way of love.”
We had actually spent the past 25 years picking apart, debating, and unravelling this one question:
“Does the human have the capacity to form Institutional Life (love, work,school, etc.) without doing violence to one another?”
Can we love and know ourselves and care enough for the ourselves and the other to come together without the need to control or direct? In a time of feeling overwhelm, fear and apathy, we are left with this past election results. What does this have to do with love? And with the news?
I made a decision to do the work to consciously bring in information and people that enhance the odds of love. And to allow for the possibility of coming together for all our benefit.
This work asks for us to be present in each moment with on-going, daily committed work. It is not easy being sacred, human. It is our calling. It is where the sacred resides. This is the powerful difference between attending a once-a-week worship and memorizing a book and engaging in a practice. Listening to the manipulated and controlled news (even the word “news” is commercial bladder) does little to foster our personal and collective work. So I’m done with it.
If you’re interested in joining my experiment and increasing the odds of more love, try these less radical, yet totally pro-love exercises:
- Go for a week without turning on commercial news
- Go for a week without reading a newspaper either online or in print
- Talk with friends for a month about positive things only
- Read a book with your friends that supports growing
- Put together support group where members share and support each other’s journeys
- Share stories that enhance your life and the lives of your family and friends
- Meditate regularly and combine breathing exercises with life-enhancing words
- Get involved in positive, effective community groups and spiritual groups
Less news. More love.
That’s the kinda world we deserve to live in.