Today is the day the USA votes for our presidential election. It’s a very big day for all of us. Not just our country. Tonight, tomorrow, the next day, some of us will celebrate, and others will mourn. I sincerely hope you will be on the celebrating side. I know that’s impossible for all who read this, but I mean it. I wish it wasn’t.

If you are not on the celebrating side, I hope you will find comfort in the dreams that inspired the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America. Both are based on the ideals of liberty and justice for all. This hasn’t yet become a reality in our time. Democracy is far from a perfect system and our founders were far from manifesting their ideals in their everyday lives. But isn’t it possible for us to improve on their vision? And don’t we all hope for improvement?

The thinking of our nation’s founders was evolving beyond old, outworn, and terribly unjust systems of government into greater consciousness of what’s better for all of us. We are still evolving in the same direction. We all want to live in a world where everyone has enough food, fresh water, resources, and opportunities to better themselves and the lives of their loved ones. We all cherish our children and want to give them better lives than we had. But too many of us are still unaware of our primal drive for self-preservation that so dominates our instincts that it obscures our opposite and equally compelling drive for species-preservation.

Our founders tried hard to respect their drive for species-preservation, but they didn’t know themselves well enough to understand how to make that happen. Over two hundred forty years later, we still don’t. But we’ve made many advances because we’re growing more conscious and self-aware. Women can vote now. They have more choices to make about how to protect their lives and feed their children than ever before. Couples who identify as LGBTQ can legally wed. Blacks have equal protection under the law, even though some people responsible for enforcing those laws still don’t have the self-awareness to respect the rights of the people they’re meant to protect.

Some of us are immune to Covid 19 but none of us are immune to our shadows. All of us struggle to be better than we have been or think we are. We all want a better life for ourselves and our children, and most of us think we know which leader can make this happen for us. But our shadows are blinders that prevent us from seeing what’s happening around us.

And what really is happening to our country? Our species? Our world?  Do you know what the next best step is for all of us? Do you really know what will happen next?  Do I?  Not really. But I think one thing we can all agree on is that whatever happens in the coming days and years will be better for each of us if it’s better for all of us. Because our family, our community, our state, our world, this universe, is the physical home of all of us. And deep in our hearts, we all want to live out our lives in the safe haven of home. Whatever that means to us.

Whoever we vote for, whatever happens in this election, to me this day feels like a critical turning point. Regardless of the outcome, we each have the power to decide how to make our ideals for freedom and justice for all come true. Like very few individuals before us, we have the self-awareness to vote in harmony with the truest, deepest, most authentic truths of our souls. And if what happens in this election doesn’t work for us, we can keep voting for authenticity, compassion, and self-awareness for the rest of our lives. I believe that’s what our souls are asking of us.

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Image credits:  Google free images. pbs.org, Brittanica 

Jean Raffa’s The Bridge to Wholeness and Dream Theatres of the Soul are at Amazon. E-book versions are also at Kobo, Barnes And Noble and Smashwords. Healing the Sacred Divide can be found at Amazon and Larson Publications.com. Watch for her new book, The Soul’s Twins, forthcoming from Schiffer Red Feather Mind Body Spirit on Nov. 17, 2020. For more information, subscribe to her newsletter at www.jeanbenedictraffa.com.