Risk Authenticity

I have been mulling over how to write my own version of the election results here.  I am one of many who are disappointed in the results, however, what I really want to express came after some reading I did from Buddhist leaders, and today I watched a Ted Talk from Brene Brown about Vulnerability.

Risk authenticity and just express how you feel.  I find it best to do this within my own tribe first, to get my feet wet, then branching out from there.  But be informed and be kind.

Personally, I don't vote for anyone who supports racism, but I also didn't think it wise to let someone run the country who had never been a politician.  We don't usually hire managers off the street, so that was just bad business.
I let my gut tell me how to feel about a person, I always have.  I have good instincts and high intuition.  I knew he wasn't right for the job.

Aside from all the obvious stuff that has already been aired, I really see this as a Shift, an opportunity for Big change.  OK, it's out, and the country is split. everyone is mad as hell, and at each other.  This is not where we should start.

For me personally, it became apparent just a few days after the results were out and I was on a day trip with a friend who happens to be a conservative republican.  I was hoping to not talk politics at all, and we almost got through the whole day, but somehow it came up and I feel I was ambushed into a corner.  Not really her fault.  My lesson there was how apparent it was to me that I was uninformed and couldn't even defend myself!  My fault.  Knowledge is power, that is correct, and I have seen the light!

After a recent meditation I came away feeling compassion for all of us.  I also felt hope and acceptance.  But it will take some time to sort things out before others calm down, some just won't, but that's in their nature.

So risking authenticity is to be vulnerable, and vulnerable is a state of openness.  The risk of course is not knowing the outcome, but that's just life.

I think this Shift will be different for all of us, it will be very personal and many will grow because of it.  I know I have already.