Under No Circumstances

For many years now I had adhered to a mantra of-sorts that asks a single, simple question. It is the quality question, the yin, relentlessly asking - because it is always a question of quality - my current, present amount of sloppiness. The yang component is the equally binary question (very popular in my spin classes) asking under what conditions I/we will quit. With these two sides of the same coin, each as important to themselves as to the other, we have an opportunity to access the whole. Because you can’t have one without the other. One cannot display sloppy attention to detail in broad daylight and think it will be covered by surrender and retreat in the moonlight of midnight when no one is watching.

This includes not only our attention to the nuances of diet, exercise and stress management, but everything that happens for us (as compared to 'to us') from the moment we hit the clean and polished bedroom floor to the time we lift our weary feet back off it at the day’s triumph end. Take a single moment to consider what this means to you. Our treatment of animals, our food choices (please do not kill animals for food), the choices we make regarding our energy usage, the ways we impact ecology, climate change, over-production, totalitarian capitalism, democracy, geo-politics, systemic persecution of minorities, access to education, gun control, white supremacy……I could go on for six or seven pages. Point being that every day we have many opportunities to speak our truth and have a voice in the that direction our society moves.

If you have been following along you will instantly recognize one of our most important tenants to be the one suggestion that leaders lead by example, not by bellicose and belligerent manipulation of the media, but by walking the walk. Going into difficult situations to gauge firsthand the depth, perplexity and timeliness of a proper response. And then going about the difficult action of creating an opportunity for change. To make it better, to fix the circumstance and ensure that underlying complexities causing the issue are addressed as well. All of this starts with trust in the system.

And right now, this moment in time on our watch, trust is a rarity. Especially where we need it most. We need to trust in ourselves that as a united populace we can create change. Make no mistake folks, the current administration wants to divide us. They want the dividing wedge driven deep. They do not want your trust, they want their power and greed continued. And they will do anything to get it. This is not good.

As I sat and watched another cable news moderator complain about the lack of focused response by the Democrats to the latest scandal (the one about a nefarious Ukraine quid pro quo), it occurred to me that the real power lies with us. I for one, question my ability to maintain the high-alert status that has already taken the souls of many of my brothers through the manipulation of the tactic they call resistance-fatigue. They will try to bludgeon us with assaults on our morality, ethics, decency and basic humanity until we give up. As another dozen lackeys are appointed to lifetime positions asking nothing but loyalty to the boss as job requirements.

And we get sloppy. And we consider running away, waving a white flag in retreat. The sloppier we get the easier it is to hide.

So I ask this of myself today. Stay vigilant, stay present, see the power in resiliency and dedication to core values. Find a way to smile and console those who have been hit. Leave no one behind. And under no circumstances surrender.