I am sitting in my home office in Half Moon Bay, California right now.  I look over at my “Change We Need” sign, my Obama Pride button and my Half Moon Bay Gay Weddings postcards that are sitting on my desk.

I came back on a flight from Las Vegas where I had been working tirelessly with thousands of others to deliver the vote for Barack Obama in Nevada. Our last stop after our get-out-the-vote efforts at 6:30 a.m. election day was to check our polling place to make sure every person was able to vote and that there were no problems.  There were no lines and no problems, primarily because nearly half of the voting population in Nevada had voted early.

Earlier that day, when I was canvassing through some apartments in a less resourced part of town, I was greeted at the door by a Vietnam veteran who had lost part of his hand, was deeply scared and used a wheelchair.  I smiled at him in my pink t-shirt that sported a picture of Obama in dark sunglasses and the words “mission possible” across my chest.  I told him we wanted to make sure every Barack supporter is identified and makes it to the polls tonight.

At first he didn’t want to tell me who he was voting for, but I offered him a ride, to the polls, anyway, and his eyes filled up with tears, “This is the first time I am voting since I came back from Vietnam. As a matter of fact it’s the first time I’ve registered.”  At the polls he rolled up his wheel chair to the booth and placed his wounded hand for Barack Obama for president.

This was a highlight of the four days we spent knocking on door after door (sometimes repeatedly, three different times).  We met some hostility but we mostly met kindness and best wishes and even cheers as we walked up and down the streets with our clipboards.  We were blessed to attend a rally with Barack Obama and to stand directly behind Michele Obama when she addressed a college campus on election eve.  We have a beautiful picture of Jane in a warm embrace with Michele after her remarks.

In our hotel room I sat with my beautiful wife Jane, my best friend Julie and our new friend Lisa.  We cried together in joy when the news declared Obama president-elect.  We screamed when we saw that he had won Nevada handily.  We were moved when John McCain, said the words “he has prevailed and the American people have spoken, clearly” and we sat in awe of seeing the new first family walk onto the stage.  Finally, the dream is in action in the world.  A man has been judged by the content of his character and not by the color of his skin.

We arrived at the party for campaign workers at the Rio, right off the Las Vegas strip.  We were greeted by mobs of Obama supporters yelling, cheering, dancing, and chanting.  Strangers stopped to embrace us, give us high fives, and we smiled with each other from head to toe.  There were thousands of people at this hotel and they filled more than one convention ball room.  A French newspaper reporter asked to take a picture of my friend Julie and I and he said that over 70% of the people in France support Obama.

In the hallway a young man holds a sign that says “No on Proposition 8″ - he starts the cheer defiantly but there is a sadness and a rage as he knows and we all know that for a moment it appears justice and equality have been obstructed.  The people who placed a proposition on the ballot which would make our state constitution a tool of discrimination for homosexual couples believed they were doing good.  The people who said NO to this proposition to amend the constitution believed they were doing good.  Each side was seeking their good. One to include and one to exclude.  I was sad that exclusion prevailed in this moment. I was sad that religious beliefs had crept into a document intended to protect citizens from the tyranny of the majority.  I was sad that I had helped elect a president but hadn’t done enough to protect my legal marriage to Jane.

This is where the opportunity for right contemplation comes in. If I focus on what is good, I look for where peace, joy, light, love and truth have demonstrated.   I saw good in all the faces of the people all around the country who believe and are willing to do their part to contribute to a better world, working with an enlightened leader.  I saw people who might never have spoken to each other working together and making calls to oppose amending our state constitution to leave some of us out of its rights and privileges. I saw a lot of love and joy and light and truth and dedication to peace among us.  This is where I will focus.

Does it mean I won’t do something to respond to this constitutional amendment? No, it doesn’t. I will take inspired action and I know it will have a positive demonstration.  There is a human, legal response to what has happened. I will support this response.

There is a spiritual response to what has happened and that is to see the truth.  Freedom is part of who we are; we are free in Spirit because it knows no bounds.  Being made of the same stuff as the moon and the stars, nothing can separate us from God, our good.  No matter what human law says, I am free completely.  This inner freedom is what I contemplate now and I have no doubt that as each of us knows this inner freedom, knows the truth of who and what we are, it must be made manifest in the world.

Barack Obama did his inner work.  Today he is, in effect, the leader of the free world. He knew this about himself before we ever called him forward to take his place.  We must know this about ourselves — that we are perfect, whole, complete and free and the world will be better for this.

Love, Christie

An open letter to Barack Obama, by Alice Walker, a great woman of our time (quick bio below).

It is a beautiful piece that invites us all to not just do our automatic non-considering thing of rushing and filling each minute to make a decision, take action, fix a problem, fulfill a promise. Just like a woman, she invites a more reflective, more open and balanced place from which to take on the world’s issues. To be grounded, centered, at peace when meeting the many faces of conflict, anger and fear. To be healthy in mind and body, whole in heart, clear and steady in spirit. To know who you can tap your joy and hope with while walking the perilous journey ahead. How just like a woman. And thank Goodness and Grace for it!

Nov. 5, 2008
Dear Brother Obama,

You have no idea, really, of how profound this moment is for us. Us being the black people of the Southern United States. You think you know, because you are thoughtful, and you have studied our history. But seeing you deliver the torch so many others before you carried, year after year, decade after decade, century after century, only to be struck down before igniting the flame of justice and of law, is almost more than the heart can bear.

And yet, this observation is not intended to burden you, for you are of a different time, and, indeed, because of all the relay runners before you, North America is a different place. It is really only to say: Well done. We knew, through all the generations, that you were with us, in us, the best of the spirit of Africa and of the Americas. Knowing this, that you would actually appear, someday, was part of our strength. Seeing you take your rightful place, based solely on your wisdom, stamina and character, is a balm for the weary warriors of hope, previously only sung about.

I would advise you to remember that you did not create the disaster that the world is experiencing, and you alone are not responsible for bringing the world back to balance.

A primary responsibility that you do have, however, is to cultivate happiness in your own life. To make a schedule that permits sufficient time of rest and play with your gorgeous wife and lovely daughters. And so on. One gathers that your family is large. We are used to seeing men in the White House soon become juiceless and as white-haired as the building; we notice their wives and children looking strained and stressed. They soon have smiles so lacking in joy that they remind us of scissors. This is no way to lead. Nor does your family deserve this fate.

One way of thinking about all this is: It is so bad now that there is no excuse not to relax. From your happy, relaxed state, you can model real success, which is all that so many people in the world really want. They may buy endless cars and houses and furs and gobble up all the attention and space they can manage, or barely manage, but this is because it is not yet clear to them that success is truly an inside job. That it is within the reach of almost everyone.

I would further advise you not to take on other people’s enemies. Most damage that others do to us is out of fear, humiliation and pain. Those feelings occur in all of us, not just in those of us who profess a certain religious or racial devotion. We must learn actually not to have enemies, but only confused adversaries who are ourselves in disguise.

It is understood by all that you are commander in chief of the United States and are sworn to protect our beloved country; this we understand, completely. However, as my mother used to say, quoting a Bible with which I often fought, “hate the sin, but love the sinner.” There must be no more crushing of whole communities, no more torture, no more dehumanizing as a means of ruling a people’s spirit. This has already happened to people of color, poor people, women, children. We see where this leads, where it has led.

A good model of how to “work with the enemy” internally is presented by the Dalai Lama, in his endless caretaking of his soul as he confronts the Chinese government that invaded Tibet. Because, finally, it is the soul that must be preserved, if one is to remain a credible leader. All else might be lost; but when the soul dies, the connection to earth, to peoples, to animals, to rivers, to mountain ranges, purple and majestic, also dies.

And your smile, with which we watch you do gracious battle with unjust characterizations, distortions and lies, is that expression of healthy self-worth, spirit and soul, that, kept happy and free and relaxed, can find an answering smile in all of us, lighting our way, and brightening the world.

We are the ones we have been waiting for.

In Peace and Joy,
Alice Walker

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alice Malsenior Walker (born February 9, 1944) is an American author, self-declared feminist and womanist - the latter a term she herself coined to make special distinction for the experiences of women of color. She has written at length on issues of race and gender, and is most famous for the critically acclaimed novel The Color Purple, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

A brief reflection and invitation– pass the content on as you see fit– let’s just start taking down the signs and leaning over the fences!

Friday afternoon (Halloween) I was standing on a street corner with about 15 other Obama supporters on each side of the stop light in Freeland watching the reaction of people driving by. Many smiles, some frowns, the occasional down-thumb. And then a big guy on a big motorcycle came by, very slowly passing right in front of us  shouting obscenities about the “f-king liberals” and the ruination of his America. It was quite a verbal assault, finished by a roar of his bike pipes and off he went.

It made me think, again, we have to stop this raging at each other. It seems to me that those on the right feel a sense of entitlement to rage, to lashing out when threatened–and I am sure there are those on the left who do the same. And all it does is widen the divide and increase fear.

Walking back to my truck a bit later, holding my Obama sign to my chest I could feel my heart swell with hope like I have not allowed myself in a long time. I sat in the truck cab and cried and asked myself, “How will I handle it if McCain snatches victory from the jaws of defeat?” And it gave me great empathy for those walking back to their vehicles clutching McCain signs to their chests.

So the next day, on my way to phone banks and canvassing undecided voters, when I saw the McCain people out at another corner down the highway I determined to walk up to every person I see who is wearing a McCain button, holding a McCain sign, or has a McCain bumper-sticker, and extending my hand to shake theirs. “Hello, I’m your neighbor, Christina, in Freeland. Deep down, I believe we have similar values and dreams and come Wednesday, you can on me to include you in my vision of America… Can I count on you?”

This is the question. And I invite you to start asking it–for Wednesday morning is just the beginning of an era of citizen involvement that must go on for the rest of our lives. This citizen involvement will have many facets as we learn how to communicate more and more effectively with our elected officials, and our new president. And it will be sustained at the local level. You can count on me… And I know I can count on you.

And for the inspiration part: this song is a must see–just as this vote is a must believe!

http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=oVi4rUzf-0Q

Love to you!
Christina

Christina Baldwin
www.peerspirit.com

www.storycatcher.net

“Telling each other our stories is like gesturing with lightning bolts–it’s exciting and electric, and you hope everyone is being a little careful with the power of it all.” — a thought from my new book:

Storycatcher– Making Sense of our Lives Through the Power and Practice of Story 

VISIT THE DYNAMIC/INTERACTIVE WEBSITE: www.storycatcher.net

An insight that I’ve been considering recently is that for thousands of years, women have been “holding the place” for new forms of being as a society to emerge.  It appears that the time is now upon us when ways of living in greater harmony are being born out of the collective. Women are waking up to a greater potential. It seems evident that the world is asking for this uprising of feminine awareness. Feminine intuition whispers that somewhere in the current crisis there is a birthing. It is my belief that we’ve been gestating long enough and our present gift is to birth a world that works for everyone.

One such shining example of a new form of the power of the feminine collective is a group of 80 or so Canadian women who call themselves Buddy’s Group. Every Thursday morning at 7:30 am for the last 5 years these wise and wonderful women have been gathering in the back room of a bagel shop in the town of Duncan on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. According to one of their co-founders, Clare Peterson, they do not have a mission statement or a strategic plan. They do not have pre-set agendas.

Their calling is clear: support women going public. Their process simple: they show up, light a candle in their midst, call upon the ancestors for their presence and guidance, and listen with integrity for the projects and positions in government and community that they can and are called to support. This then activates the women into action, each one volunteering to take on whatever they feel is needed that they have the capacity to give.

Among the many projects running on the fuel of this community hub, Buddy’s Group supported Jean Crowder in her first campaign for Parliament, and this October 2008 marks Jean’s third election to office. The joke is that their success in politics and community-organizing has created a perception that they are a huge political operation, instead of more simply a group of women (and a few men) having conversations in a bagel shop. As Laura Finch, the owner of the bagel shop describes it, “we are bringing the feminine to politics, and changing the language.”

I have the privilege of co-hosting a twice-weekly blogtalkradio show called The Conversation Campaign, that focuses on the art of authentic conversation. Our orientation is to speak straight from the heart about what matters most…and to have conversations as if our lives depended on it. In our show last night, we were thrilled to have Clare, Laura and Jean join us to speak about their work and their style.

The description that I like the best about Buddy’s Group is that they are creating “outrageous containment.” Doesn’t that just give you a taste of the levity, trust, courage and sanctity that this group of women is about? When asked what they were working on these days, they answered: “We have been holding the US and Barack Obama in our collective heart.”   This warms my heart!

Listen to the full story of Buddy’s Group in the recorded conversation with them on Blogtalkradio’s segment, The Conversation Campaign, details below.

What role do you see yourself playing in the awakening of women moving onto the public forum? Every little nuance of feminine practice on behalf of universal goodwill helps humans everywhere.  Share your precious offerings with us.

Also, if you have questions for the women of Buddy’s Group, this is where you can ask them. And we hope to hear from them in this space soon.

Bonnie Kelley

Join The Conversation Campaign to have the conversations of your life. I, Bonnie Kelley, and my beloved friends, Jeanie DeRousseau and Teresa Ruelas will be with you Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5:00-6:00pm PT. You can listen in and participate by going to www.blogtalkradio.com/The-Light-Show. If it’s your first time and you want to not only listen, but also participate in our Chat Room, come early to register your user name, password and a display name. (You may need to “refresh” the page after you have signed on to find the Chat Room usually, in a small box on the right side that will say “Chat available”.)