The warmth among us... [1.21.17]

I find that I am tired around the eyes today...

In a raw soulful way, a bone deep way, a heart heavy way.

It is like a profound and all encompassing tiredness has fallen.

Over us all…  Over the scared ones.  The sad ones.  The different ones.

We are all on an even unconscious collective level experiencing a profound loss.

A loss of our better nature.  A loss of our highest selves.  A loss of the goodness and loving strength of character that we know we undeniably possess. And in its place there is only the stench of ill-placed hate.  I lit a candle yesterday and to my great horror the match – unlike any I had ever struck before or since – released upon contact a dozen odd dark ghostlike droplets of soot that hung in the air and lingered. 

I tried to swat them down and they laughed.

I felt then – as I do now – that the darkness had come.  The darkness has come to this country.  The light that held us together – previously protected from it like a candle shielded from the wind – is in danger.  I can feel it in my bones.  The light of our collective goodness has been exposed.  The lantern that held it has departed just as the torrents have come.  Left to face the elements alone we now have a choice. 

We must either commit ourselves to the daily preservation of that flame or risk it going out. 

The flame of decency and courage and goodness and honesty and integrity is in us all.  We must fan it and tend it and spread it and share it like our lives depend on it – because they do.  We are alone here now.  The darkness has come. We must protect those that who are less powerful, those who suffer, those who feel fear, and those who now wonder where they fit.  We must protect the least among us lest we become the last among us who can remember what it is like to feel the warmth of that bright and most loving flame.