Since the 2024 election results, I’ve been grieving about how divided our country is and how misled by fear we are. I’m sorting through my emotions, looking for hope. I cannot tolerate the Trump policies. I don’t want to summarize them here because I am certain you are informed.
In brief, I see only trauma ahead. More division. Continued “othering,” scapegoating, and even deaths here and abroad because of his policies, which Project 2025 has outlined.
I have opinions on all of his policies, but my immediate focus is healing myself so that I can face the challenges ahead. I battle my fear of what will happen to women, immigrants, people of color, the elderly, the LGBTQ community, those with disabilities, and other minorities who have been targeted by Trump for years, especially since his first bid for president.
Camus’ quote, from my youngest sister, who is a Bereavement Counselor, is a good start. I have within me an “invincible love,” which will help me push back against fear. Whatever is happening in the world is happening within me. I’m a microcosm in this macrocosm, my country, the world, and Earth. I have a choice to be a spark of love or a spark of fear. How I grow at this time can help others. If I don’t move to higher ground, I may become part of the problem.
In my files, I found this chart classifying concepts into the categories of love vs fear.
This chart helps me identify my emotions at any one moment. At the base of the pyramid are fear-based emotions. In the physical realm, victim, fear, desire, and anger reside. Entitlement and pride rest in the negative part of the mental realm. In positive terms, the mental realm hosts courage and reason. The spiritual realm embraces acceptance, wisdom, love, and unconditional love.
I’m currently in the physical realm. If I don’t move out of the realm of anger, fear, victimization, and desire, my health will be affected. Studies show that stress is at the core of every major illness. Anger, guilt, and shame are bad medicine. Desire creates want, which creates disappointment and despair. The victim is our embodied fear screaming about how unfair life has been. Victims feel others are taking advantage of them. They are helpless and pessimistic. All these negative states create imbalance and illness.
Sometimes, I reside in the mental realm when I feel entitled to better outcomes. I want the world to go my way, which is also pride. “My way or the highway,” President Bush said.
To achieve invincible love, I want to focus on courage, reason, acceptance, wisdom, love, and unconditional love.
- Courage is a challenge. Although I have participated in some political protests, I’m not the activist archetype. I feel it is dangerous to stand out, especially in a crowd protesting volatile topics. I want to be invisible, not invincible.
- Reason is easier for me to achieve because I love to study and think. I know which arguments are logical and illogical. However, convincing cult followers that their arguments are illogical is a lost cause.
- Acceptance is difficult. Perhaps acceptance here means that I can embrace my limitations. I don’t have all the answers. I’m fallible. I am imperfect. I don’t have to have the last word. I can’t save the world. Honestly, I want to, but I can’t.
- Wisdom is a high ideal. One can be well-educated, but not wise. As an elder, how can I teach what I have learned in life without riding a high horse?
- Love resides in the opposite spectrum of fear, implying that fear and hate are bedfellows. Fear is inciting hateful behavior and rhetoric these days. It’s easier to get pissed off, especially on social media, than to forgive. Forgiving hateful actions is difficult for me. Forgiving people who support hateful actions is difficult for me. I wonder if the crux of our shared misery is our inability to love and forgive? I have researched several organizations teaching the art of forgiveness, such as The Forgiveness Project.
- Forgiveness takes me to unconditional love, the highest form of energy in the universe. It’s our chemo, for it can heal anything. I can heal the fear, hate, anger, guilt, and shame in our physical body. Love cures. Related to unconditional love is loving kindness, which enables us to extend unconditional love to ourselves, a benefactor, a friend, a family member, a challenging person, and all beings.
I have my work cut out for me and will continue to share as I adjust to the challenges of this formidable time. What are your thoughts?
Extraordinary Sunshine Weaver 
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