Update: March 23, 2025: I am an opinionated person. I am a human being with strong feelings about what I see has man’s inhumanity to man. I have veered away from being political in my blog. I’m a certified coach, after all, I’m supposed to be impartial. I can hold a place for you in my heart, even if we disagree. I know that we can find common ground through our shared values, even if we don’t practice those values in the same way.

I just received an email from an acquaintance who has received my newsletter for a decade or more. She read this post, written in the heat of the election results, and was deeply offended. So be it. I cannot and will not please everyone. I may want to actually read it again someday, so have filed her long email in my vitriol folder. Maybe she sees the following post as vitriol. Honestly, I get it. If I were to write this today with some space and 60 days into this administration, it would definitely be different. And I will not change it.

Read the following ONLY if you’re okay with the reality that we are all entitled to our opinions and that may not agree. I believe we can still respect one another and our differing views.

Written soon after our last presidential election: For those of you whose candidate won the presidential election, congratulations. May you find peace in the outcome. For the rest of us, please give us time to process what we are experiencing as a devastating loss.

As a straight, white woman, arriving into a family with some means, I was born with privilege. Not as much as my brother, but still. I cannot speak for others, so these words are simply my small way of offering hope.

I feel Kamala offered much hope and encouragement in her concession speech when she implored us to not give up. To be the stars in the dark night sky. To shine our lights.

And I want to say more.

In my late teens and early 20s, I started “experimenting” (as they say) with drugs. It all began with an innocent enough prescription from my doctor to help me lose weight. Amphetamines. It worked. Taking this drug made me feel powerful, engaged, and strong.

Sadly, I didn’t stop there. I don’t recall whether I could no longer get the drugs or if it was just “easier” to continue on to cocaine and heroine off the street. It wasn’t long before I hit my personal rock bottom. Among many lessons, I realized no one was coming to save me. I looked up from the very bottom of the hole I had dug and saw a bright light in the darkness. My North Star. Love. The light of love pulled me out of that hole. Love for myself. My precious life. The people around me who mattered to me.

I pray to my agnostic source that we remember that we are born worthy of love, receiving it, expressing it, seeing it as a beacon in ourselves and others. I pray that I not fall once again into a dark hole of despair, numbing my pain, where I’m not okay with who I am and with what I believe is possible for us as a people.

I pray that the source that binds us all to one another – this human family – wakes us up to our commonalities instead of our differences. That we do not become the monsters over here that fight the monsters over there. The other. All of us. We must stop this craziness.

I work hard to not hate those of you who voted for the winner of this election. I do believe you are misguided. I pray that you wake up from the trance, the drug, of the MAGA cult-like, hate-filled message. That when you hit rock bottom and there is no one coming to save you, that you rediscover the love that’s always been available in your heart. I pray that you find a way to deprogram the hateful misogynistic, racist, xenophobic, homophobic, Islamophobic, all the “othering” that separates you from your neighbor. Your neighbor who, by the way, did not eat your cat and does not vilify you. Please, please, stop drinking the Kool-Aid. Your recovery is ahead. You can do this. The world needs the light of your love, not your darkness.

I will do my best to hold on to hope for us all to find love again. I will do this by having good boundaries with myself. No network news broadcasts in my diet, because I get infuriated by the feeding frenzy, the othering, the them-and-us. I don’t want to be that person. I’ve gone cold turkey and just like quitting heroine and cocaine, it’s much easier than I thought it would be.

Practicing my value of kindness insists that I catch myself when I go to a hateful place. This begins with kindness for my own precious self, even when I feel my hateful self try to gain an upper hand. As I continue my network news fast. I won’t be on social media either. Just can’t. My psyche and heart need a rest.

Love is all that matters, no matter what. Find your North Star. Find the love in your heart. It’s there. You’ve got this.

PS I haven’t written or posted a blog in over a year. The last time I did, I consulted an AI app to help me write. UGH. Totally shut me down. Why bother writing when robot intelligence can do a better job? Well, I’m over it. It’s just little ole me, I’m just good enough, no AI, TYVM. I hope my thoughts help you find comfort and hope in these crazy times. I appreciate the few minutes of your precious time that you set aside to read this.