“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
– From Article II of the Constitution
When my mind strays from where I am, I create a tension between two places that blocks me from the sensation of being fully alive, from being authentic.
When I incorporate a fullness of attention, or mindfulness, into my daily life, I seldom notice it. But if I should interrupt my flow of being by my mind straying somewhere else, I will stumble just as surely as if I were to stop seeing or breathing.
No matter how far or how long I am straying, it is the practice of returning to whatever moment I am living now that restores me. Only when I am fully present in each moment can I draw strength from the oneness of things.
I call this mindfulness.
Since I learned the result of the last presidential election, my mind’s strayfullness quotient has skyrocketed! I find myself angry, fearful, and sad at witnessing actions that are unconstitutional. From these emotions and thoughts, my mind strays to asking the question: What can I do to save our democracy? To that end, I was inspired by these words today from Joyce Vance from Civil Discourse :
“One of the most important things each of us can do is to continue to inform the folks around us. I had a fabulous conversation with some very smart people yesterday who told me how they were engaging their friends… We all agreed that “planting seeds” is important, and that can take many different forms. However you go about it, we have to do our part.”
Today, I spoke to two people at the gym who I consider friendly, and they agreed to receive from me an email about the independent news sources I follow via email subscriptions.
I am starting this daily practice of inviting friendly people to learn what is happening to our democracy by accepting one email from me.
This intention/action will help me stop straying.
I want to return to mindfulness.
Two more news sources I follow are:
and this organization can alert you to things you can do and ways to contact your members of congress:
Thank you Harry. We are each one piece in a huge jigsaw puzzle: we can’t see the whole picture, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there. Carry on in confidence that your actions and love are needed to complete the picture.