My Mantra Is “Love”

A reply to Sherry McGuinn’s “I Can’t Catch a Break” writing prompt

There are a lot of things going on in the world. Sherry McGuinn writes about her soon to be former mantra of “I can’t catch a break” during these times of coronavirus.

Boohoo. Woe is me. “Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, I’m gonna eat a worm.”

Pathetic, right? That’s what I think too. Therefore, it’s time I kicked myself in the ass of my Big Girl pants (with the hole in them) and moved on. — Sherry McGuinn

Sherry laid down a challenge to us to write about our personal mantras during these days.

Mine has been focusing on love. Not erotic love, necessarily. Living in a little bubble, being on hormones, trying to be creative and help out my son seems to have changed my libido to something more sensual and all encompassing when it comes to love. When I think of love, it makes me think of the warmth from the sun or the feeling I get taking a walk before the sun goes down and there is a refreshing breeze.

It is a feeling of peacefulness and contentment.

I am not naive, but I am peaceful. I am also optimistic about the future.

I do have a couple of concerns, but I have a feeling these will turn around soon.

My writing earnings have been decreasing. Part of it was me not writing as much because of spending more time with family this summer. I suspect it might be the same for many others as well. I might have to market myself a little better and not get stuck worrying about it. Take the action and the money will follow?

I am still plugged in with what is going on in the world, but at some point I just started sorting things through the “Serenity Prayer.” I am going to do what I can do to make a difference, but leave a lot of the stress to flow back into the ground when I put my shoe less feet onto the grass every so often when there are things that are beyond my abilities. I find “earthing” to be relaxing because I imagine stress flowing back into the soil like an electrical ground. I pray the Serenity Prayer and let the stress flow away to be recycled by the earth and the universe into good energy.

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.

— Reinhold Niebuhr

I find now I can watch the news, read the New York Times and watch videos and not feel enraged. I feel the love of the universe is telling me everything is going to be okay.

Even when I see Trump as the leader of a death cult:

Or see people gripped by our leader’s fear and paranoia grabbing their guns to “guard” themselves from high school kids peacefully marching for social change and a better way of living.

The Lincoln Project video above shows video from my area. White guys are holding AR15 watching local high school kids march in support of reforming our society in the wake of George Floyd’s killing. The contrast between fear and love is on display here. I see love winning over fear. History shows that there is always bright days after times of suffering and cruelty. I know we will be more loving and less cruel when learn the lessons from our recent days.

I am hopeful because I am struck by the smile on one of the marcher’s face. He is young. He has the same sense that I have that things are getting better. He is the up and coming generation. He is confident that he and his friends are the future and that they change the world. History has shown the power of people to change the world for the better, despite opposition from the fearful old guard clinging desperately to the past.

It is a feeling that reflects the love I am feeling from the universe these days.

I saw a pickup truck with a Trump flag on a pole in its truck bed today when I was driving my son back from his speech and occupational therapy sessions. It was almost surprising in some respects. I remember seeing a lot more Trump paraphernalia back in 2016. I haven’t seen as much this summer. It is still early, but I remember seeing people driving cars with 6 or 7 Trump bumper stickers covering the back of their cars. I don’t see as much stuff like that these days.

I also think people are getting wise to the “divide and conquer” strategy politicians are using to try to distract from their failure to protect our country from death and disease.

I live in a red state, but in a blue area, that still reflects the redness of the state. But, I am seeing a lot more LGBTQ blue and gold equality stickers from The Human Rights Campaign on cars in my area. I have also seen rainbow flags in several small cities and towns in my area. That is a change from even several years ago. I even spotted someone with a transgender flag in their window in my town. Even I have a little transgender flag sticker on my car.

We are 112 days away from the election as I write this (and if I did the calculation correctly — math still makes me worry). It is still early, but I wonder if the trend will still hold and the country will vote in responsible leadership on all levels to help us through the pandemic.

My state went for Obama in 2008 after Bush 43 had caused issues. That gives me hope that people are willing to vote in their self interests and not just stick with any particular party because of a long history of voting for the same types of people.

But politics isn’t everything. And, I have the sense that the pendulum is swinging back to center. Love will win over fear. We’ve had a lot of fear and I sense people are looking for the healing power of love after all we’ve been through lately.

And, transgender people won civil rights in the Supreme Court recently, so that is another indication that love is winning!

One thing that has been making me happy lately is making videos. Dr Mehmet Yildiz started the ILLUMINATION YouTube channel and put out a call for us to make videos. I have been getting into that art and learning for about videography and editing.

Here are some of my video creations from this week that make me happy and provide some joy just because I think they’re pretty. I am going to make up some for the ILLUMINATION channel also since I’m feeling inspired.

I feel happy that I’ve learned how to make little videos that highlight my personal blog that in turns highlights my writing here. I hope that it helps increase my audience as well as the audience for ILLUMINATION and the other places where I write.

Sherry put out the call and the challenge, so I look forward to reading what others write about their personal mantras. It always helps me to learn from others since I know I don’t know and always am open to learning more.

I’ll tag Britni Pepper, P.G. Barnett, Joe Luca, Holly Jahangiri, Kira Dawn, Gurpreet Dhariwal, Marla Bishop, Marilyn Flower, Riku Arikiri to keep the ideas flowing. I know I’m missing a lot of other people — so jump on in and let us know your mantra during these days.

More for you to love and enjoy!

Chris Hedges, BA (journalism / political science), JD, is an editor of ILLUMINATION, The Bad Influence, and Red Curtain Erotica. A list of my projects is at Unicorn News. 💗