After the Second Inauguration of Donald Trump
“We are born to live in love and joy and experience the courage and strength of our hearts in times of suffering.”
adrienne maree brown
I love reflecting on this quote as I continue to work with the both/ands of life - Monday, January 20th being MLK Day and Trump’s Inauguration being one of them.
I offer it to you as a truth to stand on in these challenging times. I invite you to hold onto it as a way to get into a “right relationship with change.” There is suffering and challenge.
AND ALSO, Love and Joy and Humor are still available to us. They are essential acts of resistance to scarcity culture, to colonialism, to violence, and intimidation.
This quote comes from an interview adrienne maree brown did with Krista Tippet on the On Being podcast.
I invite you to listen to the whole interview. There is so much wisdom in it. I could write about 15 posts from the ideas she shares.
adrienne is a true way-shower, an incredible guide for those of us who are seeking to live in love, connection, and courage in the midst of so much direct opposition to all of these.
BUT FOR TODAY . . .
In this interview she goes on to share about her experience of coming to a place of connection and understanding with her “six-foot-two white Evangelical Christian” grandfather, coming from her place as his “thick, interracial, queer, outspoken, radical granddaughter.”
She shared that when she first came out to her grandparents as queer, they essentially cut her off, but she had the sense that her grandfather had a genuine deep connection with Spirit/God and if she could just see him, he would recognize that in her too.
By her telling, at some point that encounter happened and they came to the place of common ground rooted in the fact that they were both led by their “spiritual experience of the world.”
It is with a belief in the power of connection around a shared love for the Divine that I desire to connect with conservative Christians who genuinely desire to connect and understand.
And it is with compassion for people who authentically believe what they believe — who aren’t just half-heartedly following the religion of their childhood — and as a result are cut off from people they love and don’t understand why, that I offer a space for them to ask questions.
It feels very much like the spaces that I hold for white people who are growing in awareness about racism, white privilege and white supremacy. I started holding these spaces when my parents wanted my bi-racial sons to be their educators - a role they decidedly did not want to take on.
I get why many liberals have cut ties with conservatives, especially those who voted for Trump. And I know many conservatives aren’t interested in gaining understanding as much as in arguing their points.
But perhaps there are a few who, like adrienne’s grandfather, have a more open heart than it seems on the surface. And perhaps, the power of our connection in these divided times might ripple out some new possibilities.
I leave you with the idea of the “Sacred Spiral”.
It’s the concept that growth isn’t generally linear. The way forward often appears as if it’s a time of going backward, but really, we’re on a spiral that is taking us higher (or maybe deeper depending on whether it's a rooting or a branching time).
What if it’s possible that’s what’s happening right now in the world - that we’re on the backside of a spiral?
What if you ARE learning a new way to live your values with courage and seeing where you haven't, is this the first step?
What if you keep showing up and following your heart, living with love and joy and courage and strength?
What’s possible then?
Here’s to thriving and equity, courage and compassion,
Deb