Towards the Sun

Please Note: This is written from my perspective and my experience as I've processed the results of our election. I did not vote for Trump and I do not support him. My writing stems from that perspective. If you do support him, please know that this is not an attack on you or your judgment and that I respect your right to support whoever you feel is best for you. 


I woke up on the morning of November 9th like so many others in our country--devastated, anguished, afraid. I wept. It was a grief unlike any other I had known before. As I moved through that day I continually wept for our planet and for our people. I read the Facebook posts--people launching into "This is a good thing! This is what we need to uproot the old and establish a greater good", which in that moment was the equivalent of telling someone who just lost their loved one that their loved one was "in a better place". It might be true but in those initial moments of grief it doesn't help. It's just annoying. Although I know the truth of this necessity for uprooting the dark sides of our nation (and knew I'd eventually write about it), I wasn't ready to sit with that yet. I needed to be with the sadness. I needed to cry. I just needed to be with and allow the visceral reactions I was having. Fear, anger, despair, and a desperate sense of helplessness to protect what I hold most dear--our environment, our people, our animals, our rights.

Over the next few days as I processed the election outcome what I felt coming through me was a deeper sense of connection to people. I just wanted to embrace everybody with love, compassion and understanding. As I was interacting with strangers at the supermarket, restaurants, and so on I was feeling a far deeper connection to these people than I've ever felt before. Also I noticed the deep desire to understand 'the other side'. I couldn't rest in anger and blame at the people who voted Trump in. I was angry, and I did blame them. Those were very human reactions I was having but I was determined to deal with them, not rest in them. I refused to put any actions or words to those feelings. I didn't want to hold negativity towards anyone. I understood how imperative it was to our forward movement to try to understand a perspective that didn't make sense to me. I didn't want my own perspective to add to divisiveness. I genuinely and deeply explored understanding to help me embrace unity. And the final piece that came out of my anguish was a call to action like I've never felt before. I almost instantly became mission oriented. I saw a sign by a protestor that sums this up nicely: "I will no longer accept the things I cannot change. I will change the things I cannot accept". My soul is screaming a big HELL YES to that!

Watching these things, these good and expansive things, emerge from my despair reminded me of the sunflower. This past summer I was drawn to sunflowers. They kept getting my attention and I found myself fascinated by them. They were showing up in my life everywhere. This was occurring at a time in my life that I was coming out of my own personal dark night of the soul. I read up on sunflowers and discovered that water builds up on the shady side of the stem and eventually the pressure forces the head of the flower in a steady arc towards the light. It is that pressure on the "dark" side that causes the sunflower to face towards the sun. The symbology was poignant for me at that time and I've never looked at sunflowers the same. My friends, I think the sunflower may just be our mascot for these times we are in. The pressure that has long been building on our collective dark side is forcing us towards the light. People are waking up. People are standing up. People have been jolted out of their complacency (which by God we desperately needed). The dark skeletons of the American closet--racism, sexism, bigotry--are officially out in the open now. Which is exactly where we need them if we are to heal them. So long as these things stay buried they remain unhealed and therefore continually and unconsciously acted upon.

I observed this sunflower type phenomena several times in the past year. On a personal level, I witnessed a horrific act of abuse in the woods behind my home that literally brought me to my knees. As I went through that day an unexpected thing was happening--the heartbreak was breaking my heart open. I had SO MUCH LOVE for every person and animal I saw. Because I witnessed such a lack of love, something opened in me and I became a vessel through which a higher vibration of love could emerge (ironically I had prayed that morning to expand into an even greater vibration of love). The pressure of injustice can be the most powerful catalyst for the fiercest love to emerge from our hearts.
In the face of other tragedies and injustices, such as the Orlando shooting and the passing of HB2, I really noticed what was emerging. The unprecedented backlash after HB2 that was rooted in solidarity, love, and compassion. People were angry but they weren't fighting back with anger. Their hearts motivated their actions. Numerous celebrities and businesses refused to affiliate with North Carolina until HB2 was repealed. The state lost A LOT of money. People were speaking up and standing up, nonviolently. People were talking about and demonstrating love and tolerance to a greater degree than I'd seen before. I watched as these pressures of inequality forced people towards kind, loving action. Just like I witnessed in myself, in those first few days after the election, how the pressure of my grief and anguish forced me into expansive and ever deeper spaces of love, tolerance, and action. If that's happening for me, I know it's happening for many of you.

For the past several years my spiritual team has been saying that old systems are breaking down and the breakdown of such systems is never pretty. This is what we are seeing in our country right now. The old is being uprooted and we must do everything we can to align with bringing in the greater good. It's time to get involved at a whole new level. Here's where we can to start:

1. We need to be informed and educate ourselves. Can I say that again? WE NEED TO BE INFORMED. This isn't limited to knowing what is going on in the news. It means knowing how the system works and how to work with it. We are constituents. As such we must find our voice and use it. Find out who your representatives are and begin contacting them. Here is a link that will allow you to find your representatives: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

2. Make your voice heard in congress. Here's a great article from an ex-Capitol Hill staffer on what works and what doesn't work when reaching out to Congress members (for example, letters are better than emails, and phone calls are better than both):  http://www.attn.com/stories/12768/former-congressional-staffer-explains-how-to-make-congressman-listen?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=internal
We need to find our voices and they need to be strong. For instance, we now have an administration that denies climate change and values profit over air and water quality. In terms of the environmental issues alone, WE DO NOT HAVE TIME to spend the next four years going backwards. All of the other issues we care about will be moot if we don't have a planet to live on. We need to speak up about these, and other, issues.

3. Pick the issues that matter most to you and find out what you can do to make the most impact in those areas. For me it's human rights and environmental protection. I will be focusing my energy on those areas and making my voice heard, voting with my dollars, signing and sharing petitions, and making whatever personal changes I can to align with beneficial progress in these areas.

4. Voting with your dollars. Money talks and we need to make sure it's saying the right things. Do some investigating to determine where your money goes and spend it in ways you can feel good about. For example, Under Armour is an advocate for trophy hunting and funds hunts and sites that allow hunters to brag and share photos. If trophy hunting is something you would like to see abolished, avoid buying UA. See who the parent companies of your products are. I avoid buying products that support animal testing and this one can be tricky. Brands like The Body Shop that are known for natural and ethically produced products is actually owned by L'Oreal, which does a HUGE amount of animal testing. I know this can be overwhelming; we aren't going to research every single purchase we make. But we can take some time to get somewhat informed. Do what you can, work with what you know. 

5. DON'T BE COMPLACENT. We have been taught to believe that our voices don't matter, that we can't change the system. Complacency is largely what got us into this mess. We must be strong in our convictions and refuse to stand down to injustice. When injustice occurs skip the armchair diatribes and do something. In the words of Edmund Burke, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men and women to do nothing".
Regarding everyday bigotry, speak up instead of saying nothing. Silence condones the problem. Here's a good resource to help navigate those awkward waters of what to say to someone who is being racist/sexist/bigoted: https://www.splcenter.org/20150126/speak-responding-everyday-bigotry#public

6. Use social media wisely. This can be a good place for reading various viewpoints and articles and for information sharing. Admittedly, Facebook has helped me tremendously in the past few days to find events and gatherings for change that feel important to me. It is, however, pointless to comment on the latest injustice with rants of how outraged we are. I don't want to hear about your outrage. I want to hear what you're going to DO about it. Let your outrage motivate you to seek information and make plans for action, and then tell me about that. Because that is something that might inspire me, and others, to action. We are all saying we need to do something but we're still a little lost on what to do. Share your information and share your action plans so we can grow our toolbelt too! Instead of ranting, let's redirect our energy into determining how best to contribute our efforts to making things right. 

7. Don't forget your spiritual tools. Pray. Meditate. Ask that only the greatest good prevail and ask how you can personally contribute to the greater good. In that first day of grief I had a moment where I said, ok, this is what happened, this is where we are. There is a bigger picture playing out here that I am unaware of so I will, from this day forward, make it my daily prayer to be shown how I can personally contribute to what is in the greatest good of all. For all I know Donald Trump being President may very well be in our best interest because that is the very thing that will force us to find our voices and reclaim our power, thus anchoring in new systems that are just and stand for equality. Above all else, we are spiritual beings having a human experience. What is it we stand to learn here? Where are the opportunities for expansion? How can we make the human experience as positive and beneficial as possible for everybody?
If you would like to participate in monthly synchronized meditations for global healing you can join the Facebook page to stay informed of mediation dates here: https://www.facebook.com/unite2igniteglobalhealingmeditation.
Or if you don't use FB you can learn more about the monthly healing mediation here http://www.heatherwallace.net/unite-to-ignite-global-healing-meditation.html and drop me a line to let me know you want to receive email updates.

8. Understand the problems in our country. Trump was elected because a large number of people are frustrated and feel they are backed in a corner. Why? It's irresponsible to write them off as "racists" or "rednecks". The vast majority of these people aren't racist. They're disenfranchised  and fed up with the system. I have rested comfortably in white middle class America where the social and economic struggles of many Americans aren't my struggles. This has made me largely unaware and uninformed regarding the realities that many of my brothers and sisters live in. I want to close that gap by understanding and connecting. We've long been divided (city folk versus rural folk) and to continue that division will only hurt us.

This is not the time to crumble. It is the time to pick ourselves up by the bootstraps, look this shitstorm in the eye and say, Game On. We have been shown how to do this. We have had the examples of Gandhi and MLK Jr. to show us the strategies that work and that DO create change. They started this work for us and we need to finish it. Forget about fighting the old (what we resist persists); our power lies in bringing in the new. We are spiritual warriors and we know that love is stronger than fear.

The pressures in our country are strong--just the type of catalyst that can turn us towards the light. 

If you have other ideas or resources/links to share, please feel free to contribute those in the comments section.

In Love & Gratitude,
Heather