I still cry, but I don't beat myself up about it when I do and I have also started to actively do things to keep myself from going over the edge into total gloom.
I'm white, no kids with special needs, I'm a Spiritual Atheist, and I am straight, so I don't have a target on my back.
But I have been privy to private groups where members had to be talked out of suicide because they felt like life was going to be a living hell because of all of the open hatred... now emboldened by the election result. Those are the extreme cases of course, with most of us just feeling a range of emotions from complete rage to utter hopelessness.
What I want to say to everyone is ... hang in there. And no, I won't post the Kitty hanging from the tree branch.
Seek out Beauty
While you are hanging in there... allow yourself, give yourself permission... to feel it all. I truly believe that is what sets us apart from the hardened hearts.
The trick.... is to balance it with things that lift you and remind you that we will get through this. And dare I say it... but maybe this is actually a good thing.
One thing I know to be 100% true is that even when really horrible things happen, human kind always finds ways to deal with it. That's not to say that we won't go through hell. But maybe this issue of bigotry and hate and all that comes with it, HAD to be put on the table. No more hiding, no more turning a blind eye, no more pretending it wasn't real, no more avoiding the subject, no more being friends with people who you otherwise thought of as decent human beings just to be civil. A line has been drawn. Now you get to decide what side you are on.
There are so many good things to turn to when we face hardship in life. Friends and family, work you love, knowing how lucky we are compared to those who have nothing, there is a long list.
The simplest thing I find to help me cope, is to find a piece of music that lifts you spiritually. Music is soul food. It can say things in a way words can't always express. Lyrics are great and do serve a purpose especially when there is a deeper meaning.
One of my favorite songs from U2 is Ordinary Love. The lyric of "the sea throws rocks together, but time leaves us polished stones."
For me, it means that even though we go through rough seas, it's those rough seas that throw us on the rocks and polish us, forge us ... into something beautiful. During these dark days of Trump, I know there will be something beautiful to come from it at some point. Hang in there.
