The Battle for the Soul of Our Nation

"He that dwellers in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God in him will I trust."  Proverbs 91 KJV

This morning I awoke from a long, deep sleep feeling relaxed and rested after a tumultuous week with several late nights.  It was a chilly morning with a temperature of 45 and I turned on my gas fireplace then sat in my robe and began to think about this last week.   I journaled my thankfulness for all the people I felt blessed to have in my life, as well as those who have been fighting so hard with love and determination for the soul of our country.  I decided to get dressed and drive to Sandy’s Back Porch to get Fall decorations, drop of my ballot in the county box, and pick up birdseed for my front feeder.  As I got ready to depart, I connected my iPhone into Apple play in my car and selected my Christmas playlist.  

My childhood is filled with memories of music, especially the music of my parents who were part of the Greatest Generation.  My Christmas playlist includes music from the Robert Shaw Orchestra, Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, and other greats from the 1950s, as well as contemporaries such as Michael Bublé.  As I began to drive, I turned up the volume and listened filled with joy.  Music from the 1950s has a special quality to it, a sense of peace, joy, optimism, and love.  It reminded me that after a horrendous time in our country with the Depression and World War II, there was a spiritual awakening and a thankfulness that better times were present.  

I am aware of the realities and history of the 1950s, including McCarthyism, nuclear weapons and the beginning of the civil rights fight that would lead to activism of the Supreme Court and passage of Civil Rights legislation in the 1960s.  But progress as humans has always been an ongoing spiritual fight, and my parents’ music reflected the goodness and triumph of love after a horrifying period in our world history.

When I got to Sandy’s Back Porch, with the help of the staff, I selected corn stalks with ribbons, three pumpkins (two orange and one white), with a beautiful deep orange chrysanthemum.  We somehow fit the long stalks into my car.  I set off to submit my ballot and pick up bird seed.  At the Wildlife shop, the owner and I talked about her gay sons and the need for all people to feel loved and accepted for who they are and whom they love.  After getting into my car and connecting the music, I turned onto Route 159 with a Trump parade passing by with waving American, Trump 2020, and Make America Great Again flags attached to their pickups while they honked their horns.  A surreal contrast to the beautiful Christmas music coming from my stereo speakers, and I was reminded again that we are in a battle for the soul of our nation.  

As I have written in past posts, our thoughts and feelings as well as our spoken words and our actions affect the greater consciousness in creation.   The essence of the battle is that those who seek to instill and spread hate and fear, target those who generate and move love forward in the Universe.  And their weapons include chaos, division, fear and hatred of “the other.”  But as I have written before, God and love will prevail in the end even as some sacrifice their human lives in the fight, because love is the most powerful force in creation.

It was not a coincidence that the New York Times published articles on Trump’s tax returns Sunday night. And that Trump self-destructed hideously in the debate Tuesday and the negligence and his callous attitude about the coronavirus effect on everyday Americans had hit home with the Republican Party.  We have not seen the final impact, but I admired the decision of the Biden campaign to pull negative campaign ads, although the Trump campaign did not.  Biden knows, as my parents learned in their generation, the fight is not over, but we cannot forget goodness and love and aspire to something greater for ourselves and others.  

In the middle of all this week was my 60th birthday and although I felt the presence of God and the love of others, it was an emotional week for me in several personal ways.  I was again reminded, that my introverted intuitive feeling approach to thinking and writing is not shared by others.  I again felt pressure  to conform to an extraverted sensing world or face rejection and punishment, as I have many times before for my thoughts.  My counselor Pat said to me in my thirties, “maybe you are the normal one and everyone else is not.  Maybe you can help others be more like you.”  For me, my life journey is not told by describing what I observe around me or what I do, but to incorporate my life experiences with my journey to know who I am as a spirit connected to a higher power.   And to explain how my growth has occurred within me, so I can help others.  The fact is I have the power to operate in a much higher consciousness and spirit as do others, but the enemy pulls us downward.  We are birds meant to fly between earth and heaven, but the fowler aims to kill and cage those who can fly the highest.  

But as Richard Bach, writer of Jonathan Livingston Seagull said so beautifully in 2006.

“We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill. We can be free! We can learn to fly!” 

“There

On a distant shore

By the wings of dreams

Through an open door

You may know him

If you may

Be”

The lyrics from Jonathan Livingston Seagull