What a gift to sit on my sofa, drinking tea while looking out at the garden my wife and I planted. The birds chirp, our dogs wander in and out and I know my life is so easy compared to so many others.
Lately, I’ve noticed a downtick in sirens and an uptick in airplane traffic. Those sounds have become signals for crisis and what’s to come.
Everything is different.
Each day I experience a sense of peace, hope and prayer that we will learn what this moment came to teach us.
Peace comes in the pace of grace. In not having somewhere to rush off too. Zoom meetings dominate much of my day, as I’m launching a Get Out The Vote initiate, pushing a strategy for the Biden campaign (who can introduce me to Joe?), and recreating our experiential and environmental design company that officially closed doors with Covid-19 (more on that later).
I’m working harder than ever with a fierce imperative to evolve from the past. I don’t want anything from before. Well, I do want hugs with longer embraces. But I don’t want to be frenetic ever again. I don’t want to worship at the alter of do more, make more and consume more.
I love the connections that are happening. The people walking together, phones down, looking up and at it each other. I love zooming with my dear chosen brothers and soul sisters to bask in love. I love that my extended family is connecting for the first time in years. It’s exhilarating.
And I love my wife. The struggles in our communication have subsided. The spaciousness has given us the opportunity to hear each others needs and to act upon them. It’s actually quite easy. Daily we take the pups and sit on a unpopulated grassy knoll in our neighborhood where we pause and watch the world go round and round.
I’ve never done that. Never carved out time to just sit. Not since I was a kid. Not unless I’m on vacation or starting another meditation practice.
I feel blessed in this regard.
Yet, every night I toss about agitated by the pain that lies ahead, the pain that so many are suffering right now.
I worry we haven’t produced a nationwide values statement and commitment about what we’re going to do different. I worry that the moment we’re free people are going to jump in their cars and on planes and the sense of respite the Earth is feeling will disappear. I worry we’ll exit to discover deep despair, increased homelessness, hunger and desperation. That the quarantine bubble I’m in doesn’t reflect reality, and the suffering we are about to experience will be even more dystopian than what we’re living in now.
I worry that I shuttered one business to open another and our income has stopped.
I worry about young people not voting.
I worry that the Biden campaign is missing their window to direct the course of this moment. I’ve been writing to Joe’s campaign. I designed a two-prong strategy that will make Joe Biden the candidate we want and need. I know how to solve Joe Biden’s internet problem. I know how to connect Joe to the heart and soul of Americans, our needs as individuals and as a civil society. I worry I don’t know how to find him to share this.
I even worry Wolf will never want to leave our garden, or her easel, or kitchen and that her life is forever different. How will she reintegrate? How will we design our new reality so that our souls are fed and we are feeding others?
And then dawn comes, the birds chirp, dogs want to go out, sun keeps shining and my worries disappear. I’m present again to the new reality. I am in awe the heroes amongst us. I keep working to reach Joe Biden, to make a media company that encourages young low-propensity voters to vote, to create strategize and campaigns for companies and organizations seeking another way to connect to their customers, as we need another way.
And, as my father so lovingly asked me this morning, what do I want the next five years of my life look like? It’s hard to answer in this moment.
What I do know is that I want all people to thrive.
I want us to rewire our brains and not discriminate based on skin color, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs.
I want us to devalue the dollar, not literally but figuratively, in the way that money doesn’t define character. We are reminded of this daily with Trump. Sham, scam businessman who pillages people for his own greed. Bloomberg showed us this too. Spent a billion and promised to keep people employed through November, then fired them. We know the stories of inflated CEO salaries where workers have multiple jobs. This is not who we are. He / She with the most money doesn’t win. Yes, life is easier when not worrying about money, which is why we should make this a priority for all going forward.
If we look at who is saving us right, who’s on the frontlines, maybe we’ll recognize their value. Maybe we’ll create a society where being a grocery clerk is valued as essential and not happenstance employment. We’ll pay caregivers living wages so they don’t need three jobs. We’ll see the value of those growing, picking and delivering our food and not short change them. And we won’t worship false idols. We will worship and revere compassion and all people. We’ll redesign the system so that teachers, nurses, caregivers, clerks, factory workers, the list goes on, have the ability to make a living worth living without financial struggle, worry or ruin.
My goal is a more caring and just world. I know this begins with what we value. I value truth, humanity, mother earth, evolution, progress, love and you. I believe none of this is accidental, it’s all an opportunity for us to redesign and live a life that matters.
I’m motivated to inspire civic engagement. People often tell me I should run for office. Maybe I should? I don’t know. I don’t really know the law. What I dream of is in communication and experience design, where we create well-environments that invite people to know themselves better so we can rise in community together.
What are you learning about yourself during Covid-19? What do you hope for? What can we design together?
TODAY’S EASY ACTIVISM
Do you know Joe Biden or somebody who does? Please connect me ASAP. I know exactly what he needs to do right now.
Make sure you’ve filled out your census.
Buy some stamps. A lot of them. Let’s keep USPS funded. Consider writing handwritten protest letterS. I will share more about this vision SOON. Write the White House. Write your legislatures. write thank you notes to the heroes on the frontlines. then mail them.
Do you want to join me in strategy sessions on how to design the future we need? Let me know as I’m working on a format for discussion groups.
Love bigger. Love deeper. Share you truth. Hold nothing back.
Thank you friends. Writing to you is meaningful. I am humbled by the actions we take and the difference we make.
With love and gratitude -
:: Genessa