The world’s problems are big and have grown exponentially in the past year. They feel giant, like a monster towering overhead, so big they seem to obscure the world around me. Humanity appears on the brink of chaos, the planet is at a tipping point, the world’s future questionable.

What am I supposed to do?

What are you supposed to do?

What are WE supposed to do?

The only thing I know for certain is that if I don’t want to be part of the problems that are taking our world to the edge of annihilation, I have to oppose…

I wrote the article that follows on 11/11/20, but I did not publish it.

Why?

I felt it wasn’t ready — I felt I wasn’t ready. Now, two months later, I see that this is the right time, that this is the moment in which I am called to do something big, something bigger than I believe myself capable of doing. But I am going to do it anyway because if I want others to rise beyond their comfort zones, I must do so myself.

I am afraid of what our country has just shown us. I am afraid of…

Even if the chaos of 2020 has physically slowed you down, shackled you to your home, isolated you from friends, kept you idle, that doesn’t mean it has stilled you inside, in your heart and your mind. I ask you to consider welcoming stillness inside as well as out.

Slow down. Listen to your heartbeat. Feel your breath flowing in… hold the moment, count to three… let it whisper out. Again, invite the breath in, savor it, let it sink all the way to your toes, then release it, and feel your chest rest into itself.

Find a place of…

In 2008, when 62% of eligible voters cast ballots for the president of the United States it was a 40-year high for US voter turnout. Over those years an average of just 57% of eligible voters chose our president. U.S. voter turnout in 2016 ranked 26th of 32 developed nations surveyed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

What is the story with the other 38–43% of eligible voters…

Over the years I’ve heard things like:

• “It’s not on my radar.”
• “My vote makes no difference. It’s hopeless.”
• “I don’t like either of the candidates.”
• “It’s not convenient.”

But…

I am ruminating… have been for a long time. It’s gotten worse this year, but it’s been going on since the lead up to the election in 2016. “How can I make a difference? What should I be doing? Who can help change the trajectory humanity is on?…” These questions and too many others swirl around my head over and over, like a dog chasing its tail. But the answers haven’t come… until now.

I am a writer, and the written word is powerful. I was in the shower a couple of days ago, ruminating, when it hit me. I…

The word “know” is inadequate to say what I mean. I need a word to express knowing something with all of my being when every last cell in my body is telling me something. I’m not talking about what I know in my head or even in my heart; it’s more like when people say they “know something in their bones” or “in their gut.” I’m talking about knowing something with every fiber of my being, in the depths of my soul, and the only choice I have to express it is this little 4 letter word… KNOW.

It isn’t…

I just read an article on Medium “One Book Explains Everything That’s Wrong with America in 2020, “The Secret” inscribed a toxic ideology we must undo.”

It was very well-written; the contents were important, relevant, timely. I clapped. I read the comments. But, I was left with a bad taste in my mouth. Why? Because just as when The Secret came out, I wanted to scream “ ‘the law of attraction’ isn’t her’s (Rhonda Byrne’s) to write about! It isn’t a new concept and she is stealing U.S. Anderson’s work.” Worse, she perverted it, sold it short, made it simple…

July 1, 2020 (from a hand-written scrap of yellow paper)

I just realized something. I have been sexually abused or assaulted or whatever the PC term is today. My ex-husband assaulted me. He lied to me for better than nine years about who he was, why he married me, and the hurtful behavior he engaged in throughout our time together. He also exposed me to HIV through his extra-marital partners, and he actually did physically assault me. I just can’t remember it. Either I was too drunk, or he drugged me, but the physical signs of rape were there.

Here’s the point. Until 10 minutes ago I never contextualized or…