grounding election day

To hear Brandi read this short essay, visit the Expand Your Us Youtube channel or click here: https://youtu.be/vFv-0w0LOIs

As the results of today’s American Presidential election impact our lives, some folks will feel jubilant. Others will be terrified. Some will hit their knees to pray. Some will grab their guns to do violence. Some will be thrilled to move on. Some will miss the energy and the fight. Some will huddle in their homes, scared of what is coming. Some will go out for drinks, celebrating their win.

All of us will continue to wonder who we are as a country, where we want to head as a nation, what we represent to a watching world. All of us will continue to get calls telling us that someone we love has COVID-19, that someone we care about is in the hospital, that a family we love has to isolate at home, losing income, education and moments that matter.

For today, as the anger and angst rise, reject that mess out of your own body. You need not be the repository for someone else’s hate or fear. Our bodies are hurting. We are suffering! COVID is killing people. Black lives do not matter to all in our country. Christianity means wildly different things to the people who follow Christ. Millions of Americans are on the brink of losing their business, their home, their educational foundation. The results of this election will devastate some lives and will protect others.

2020 keeps throwing punches, and we keep taking them. We need it to end. We need the climax to come so we can find the ground beneath our feet again. It is tempting to think this election is that climax. It is not. We are swept up in the flood of forces bigger than we are, and we can’t find our footing. The ground is there, dear friends; you only need remind yourself. Do what you can to bolster yourself, to protect your community, to remind yourself that your feet can feel the earth below you, and that your body has the air it needs.

Today, take a moment to ground your body and your soul. Close your eyes.

Breathe in, slowly. Hold your breath, thanking your Maker for lungs that expand.

Breathe out, pushing your toes into the earth, then lifting them to the sky as you rock back on your heels, thanking God for the balance always available to you.

Breathe in quiet, exhale all the noise.

Breathe in rest, exhale manic work.

Breathe in belonging, exhale divisive hate.

Breathe in hope, exhale fear.

Marvel at the fact that your body naturally and unconsciously breathes in and out, sustaining your life even when you forget to tell it to. Our bodies and spirits are battered, but we are not broken. The world is heavy, but still turning. As a praying person, I pray that we will remember that we belong to each other, that we share the ground that holds us up, the air that fills our lungs. Pull yourself back from the edge, check in on each other, breathe, and be.

See you on the other side…