I walked around Greenbelt Lake yesterday morning and unexpectedly took photographs, something I had not done for at least a decade now that farmland sunrises beckon me most mornings. But the fall color was stunning and while taking it all in, I forgot about what this country faces a week from today: an election to move us joyfully forward or despairingly backward.
I am posting these photos with the hope that they will provide you with the solace they provided (and still provide) me. Also, I have decided to keep this post open until after November 5 as a safe place (unlike Facebook) to express your fears and anxieties, joys and hopes. I will check in frequently to see what has been shared and to post my own trepidations and ways of coping with this election. In the meantime, please take in the beauty captured here. Better yet, take a walk outside. Bring a journal. Pray. Cry. And for your sake, don’t check your cellphone!
See you on the other side. Peace and love to all.
A week ago yesterday, I turned on “Morning Joe” and the mood around the table was somber. The Wall Street Journal had published an editorial that basically said that Biden’s student debt forgiveness program was “the real threat to democracy.” Joe Scarborough read excerpts aloud and was clearly saddened.
I was frightened. Again.
But then I listened to Michelle Obama’s speech from last Saturday (and have listened to it twice again) and began to feel more hopeful. “Morning Joe” played excerpts from it yesterday morning and the mood around the table was also decidedly hopeful. In fact, Joe said that he was reminded of a Bible verse: “Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes in the morning.”
I said aloud: “That’s Psalm 30, verse 5!” Yes, it was. I know it because it’s been a “go-to” prayer of mine over the last decades. And truth be told, it may the ONLY verse I know which you have to admit, ain’t a bad verse to cling to if you need one.
Then while walking around Greenbelt Lake yesterday, I was resolved to try and have more hope and joy this next week. We have all witnessed how the vile hate emanating from the Trump regime have poisoned the air. I am choosing to believe that sending out hope and joy will have a counter effect.
So with every step I take this week around Greenbelt Lake or in my beloved farmland, I will be praying, “Keep hope and joy alive.”
How are the rest of you doing? What are you doing to get through the next week?
What advice can you share?
I am taking long walks and reading poetry as they ground me and bring me peace. Further, the whole world is held in poetry and it reminds me that everything changes, that change is inevitable and regardless of the result on Nov. 5 that it will change again (not fast enough for some.) So, I leave you with this familiar poem:
The Peace Of Wild Things
When despair grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
– Wendell Berry
“The whole world is held in poetry.”
Thank you, Beth, and for re-posting one of my favorite poems.
Thank you for these majestic pictures and for sharing your emphasis on hope and solace in these difficult pre-election days. This is your very personal “Peace of Wild Things” and such a gift! As I ponder, fear, hope, struggle through these days, I am reminded of Harry Emerson Fosdick’s perspective on the importance of prayer and have tried to devote more time this week to prayer for God’s help for our nation and for our world come November 5. Here’s what Fosdick says in his book “The Meaning of Prayer”:
“Now if God has left some things contingent on man’s [I will add woman’s!] thinking and working, why may he not have left some things contingent on man’s praying? The testimony of the great souls is a clear affirmative to this: some things never without thinking; some things never without working; some things never without praying! Prayer is one of the three forms of man’s [again, I add woman’s] cooperation with God.”
Thank you, Carol. Thought, work, prayer — what healing is accomplished without these three elements?
I am constantly praying, mostly to get through the days, which I don’t think is cheating, is it? Focusing on hope and joy takes a lot of thought, work and prayer for me!
I immediately teared up and my throat clinched reading “see you on the other side.” That is how I feel. The other side both terrifies me and fills me with hope. I will cry either way. I’m grateful to have loved ones who understand this, like you. XO
Kelly — I teared up reading your comment. We’ve been in this together, and we’ll stay in this together.
I first read, “See you on the other side” in James Carville’s NYTimes editorial, “Three Reasons I’m Certain Kamala Harris Will Win,” published on October 23. The last paragraph:
“In two weeks, we not only have a chance to elect Kamala Harris as president, but a chance to bring finality to the sordid career of Donald Trump and drive MAGA into a prolonged remission.
See you on the other side.”
I teared up when I read that line, too.
We can do this. xoxo
A poem I first read on May 20, 2019:
PRICELESS GIFTS by Anna Swir (1909-1984)
An empty day without events.
And that is why
it grew immense
as space. And suddenly
happiness of being
entered me.
I heard
in my heartbeat
the birth of time
and each instant of life
one after the other
came rushing in
like priceless gifts.
Music has always been healing for me, and I have been playing this song over and over and over again. It is entitled, “Fljotavik” by Sigur Ros, and is performed here by Voces8. The language is Icelandic. Trust me, it is stunningly beautiful:
Here is the English translation:
We see over spars
a sea, we’re cutting from
We’re sailing on the mast of faith
We’re sailing, stretching ourselves
to the steersman on the bridge.
We’re sailing on the land
on a big stone, on the sand
We’re wading into land
unknown place
Yes, …
I felt myself happy there.
We are really thankful
in the pail of disaster’s house.
And we slept / felt asleep
the scary storm was outside / far away.
Oh Sharon–oh many who have responded–thank you so much. It is so hard to stay grounded and centered. Yet that is what is called for. I am also aware that even if we win, which I hope, the other side is still out there–part of my nation. I want to learn to be at peace with that, to learn to love and not just count them as enemies. Sigh–to learn to love feels like a more formidable task than winning which, goodness knows, is hard enough. Thanks for the glorious pictures. They do help me to focus on my own walks. Thanks all for poetry.
“To learn to love feels like a more formidable task than winning, which, goodness knows, is hard enough.”
So wise and I need to embrace it because we all know that the unrest in this country will not end on November 5.
This gives me hope! The lines were very long … in the SNOW! (Sharon will have to post the photo.)
OOPS! Technical difficulties prevent the posting of the photo, so I’ll describe it. On my vest is a round red, white & blue sticker saying “I voted today!”
Thanks, Beth — for voting and for describing your photo. I still don’t know how to post photos from outside this platform. I can post images from the internet, but don’t know the procedure to post photos/images not on the internet. So sorry.
I listened to Kamala’s speech which gave me great hope, but then woke up to the Biden “garbage” controversy.
I just want this to be over.
The Washington Post (yes, I am still a subscriber because this is the only job my carrier has and I love her) yesterday published an article entitled: “How to Cope with Anxiety As Election Draws Near.” Here’s the link:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2024/10/22/election-anxiety-curtis-chang-2024/
If you can’t access it, the article includes three steps that “constitute a better approach to election anxiety: 1) Realize that you can tolerate loss; 2) Monitor your addiction to news; 3) Explore the spiritual literature on loss.
The last paragraph:
“We all are going to experience election anxiety — it’s unavoidable. The very nature of democracy requires all sides to tolerate loss and therefore to endure anxiety. The very nature of life requires all individuals to grow this same emotional capacity. Election anxiety is not just a problem; it is also an opportunity for personal growth. The healthier habits we adopt in the face of political loss will sustain us when we inevitably face our own personal financial, relational and health losses. No matter the outcome of the election, we all can choose to win our long game.”
Yesterday, Anne Lamott posted this on her Facebook page:
“Seven days to go, and I think we’ve got this. The very smartest pundits I know have convinced me that we are going to eke this out. I thought so before the psycho frenzy racist carnival at Madison Square Garden—thank you, Donald Trump—and I am even more (shakily) convinced now.
Last night was one of the most terrifying spectacles of my life. I watched it with cobra hypnosis, gaping, unable to look away. I just don’t think the floating island of garbage that is Puerto Rico and the reference to Black people peeling watermelons and referring Kamala as a prostitute with pimp handlers is a winning strategy with independents.
But what do I know.
So the other day I was doomscrolling in Atlanta (long story), all but gasping like a fish on the dock, when I thought to write to my friend, the brilliant strategist and pundit Matthew Dowd, who was chief strategist for Bush-Cheney. He, almost alone, had been expressing educated optimism that Harris was going to win, and I wrote a rather piteous note that said, “Are you sure?”
This is what he wrote back: “She is still ahead and it all comes down to turnout and motivation. She is doing better among Dems than he is doing among GOPers, and she is winning independents. And she has been far a more extensive and better ground game and turnout operation. And she is going to finish very strong. This is a lot like 2012 where race was tied, and then Obama won by four. All good.”
I believe this. Matthew Dowd is so much smarter than the average bear. And he wrote this before Madison Square Garden.
So, seven days to go. It will mostly come down to turnout, but never, ever dismiss the role of heart. My brain is a pinball machine of anxiety these days, no matter my faith and deep belief that grace, but my baby heart is quieter, safer. I saw a bumper sticker that said, “If you lived in your heart, you’d be home now.” Listen to the late and very great Kris Kristofferson: “Tell the truth. Sing with passion. Work with laughter. Love with heart. ‘Cause that’s all that matters in the end.”
So that’s the plan, okay? We are going to stick together and help whoever is feeling most fragile and crazy. When it’s us, we’re going to pick up the 200 pound phone and reach out for help—I’ve heard that the whole system of life works because we’re not all a mess on the same day. The website is go.kamalaharris.com. There will be wonderful ideas in the comments below on how to help in the swing states. And the heart is our home.”
God Bless, Ann Lamott. I needed this today.
Thank you for sharing this. My heart needed it.