SOTU Archives - Owl Medicine: Shamanic Healing

Photo: www.brittanica.com

Yikes “Squared”

Fun Fact? Today was Donald Trump’s 1111^thday in office.

My post yesterday featured a photo of daffodil greens poking their heads up out of the ground a good three inches or so. The fact that those flowers are being coaxed to emerge from their cozy winter beds when it is only early February was troubling to me. It’s not their time yet.

Of course, I ended up writing about the Iowa Caucus, which was also in the process of earning its own well-deserved “Yikes.” In fact, as of just past midnight tonight, well over 24 hours after the end of the Iowa Caucus, we’re still operating with only about 62% of the precincts reporting. None of the candidates can safely claim victory or pretty much make any announcements upon which they might want to capitalize.

How incredibly frustrating must that be for those candidates?! They’ve been spending millions of dollars, focusing intense attention to this state, and practically living there, in some cases, for nearly a year – only to have the results of the single most important night, the culmination of all that hard work directed at this first opportunity for the people to speak bungled?!

Good grief.

Even Worse

But I have to tell you: I took a walk late this afternoon and had to stop. I cocked my head to get a better sense of where the sound was coming from and what I was actually hearing.

A chill ran through me. Yes. Those voices. I recognized them. It was peepers. It’s February 4^th, and I could hear peepers calling out and singing their springtime song as they emerged from the mud in the wooded wetlands near my home.

“But it’s February!” I yelled out loud. “Early February, at that!” Spartacus glanced back at me, startled by the sudden eruption of my voice and worried I’d caught him nibbling on something he shouldn’t.

Yikes squared

And then there was the SOTU, the President’s State of the Union address, to listen to this evening. Many entreated me not to listen. And I’ll admit, I was tempted to just let it go. I probably should have, in fact. But I didn’t.

I can tell you that I’m not happy I did it (other than feeling a smidgen of satisfaction in having shown some archaic sense of respect for the office). There were so many lies, so many distortions of truth, and so many blatant moments of pandering and use of rhetoric specifically geared toward manipulating emotion (over issues he’s actually taken stances diametrically in opposition to) that it made me feel lost and all alone.

Back to Premature Peepers

Nope; while I want to express my dismay over their very early emergence, they’re just not giving me enough of a distraction, in spite of my worry over their welfare.

Tomorrow is the actual vote on removing DT from office. From everything that’s gone before, including his behavior following his other two SOTU addresses, he’s going to start tweeting – and tweeting hard. As soon as the Republicans (who literally chanted “Four more years!” at the SOTU, as if they were at a campaign rally) vote to acquit instead of convict and remove him from office, he is going to be off to the races.

Just as Rep. Adam Schiff argued, his power is going to proceed unchecked. He will think and feel and know (based on the Republican Senators’ error and party fealty) he has the powers of a despot. And given his penchant for revenge? Well, we’re already hearing some reports of what he intends to do to his enemies. And we should all be afraid.

Including the peepers who are making their premature entrance into the world.

Photo: mortonarb.com

(T-661)

State of Our Union

Naah, I’m not going to talk politics. But I did watch it (the so-called SOTU); and I watched Stacey Abrams’s response. And all I’ll say is that I felt inspired listening to Stacey Abrams. I felt heartened by her vision of working together, searching for and implementing innovative responses to our country’s issues for the benefit of us all.

And it felt rejuvenating to contemplate just how quickly so many of our current, existential issues can still be turned around – before it’s too late – if we work together.

Our Ability to Share is Based In the Power of Knowing What We Have

We can do this. We must not give in to fear. We must not give in to the cynical fatalism that encourages people to take as much as they can from whomever they can get it because it’s every man for himself.

I loved the story she told of her father walking home in the pouring rain from his job, soaked and shivering when Stacey and her mom and siblings went out to meet him in their car. I loved that he gave away his coat, knowing he would be soaked and freezing cold, but knowing also that he was going home to his family; knowing they would take care of him, get him warm, and give him dinner. Giving his coat to the homeless man was a no-brainer for Mr. Abrams because that man didn’t have Mr. Abrams’s knew and felt certain of the power of greatest resource: his family.

I think that’s the single most important realization we can make in these times: we need each other. Whether we know each other or not, we must be family for each other.

We Need to Offer Of Ourselves

Yes, some of us are lucky enough to have that support system readily in place in the traditional sense. By that I mean siblings, parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins living in relatively close proximity to us. But a pretty significant portion of us do not have that comfort and sense of stability close at hand.

Instead, we’re asked to look to our left and look to our right. Some of us are starting to realize we need to reach out to our friends – and maybe even our neighbors. We need to offer our friendship and support, offer our unique skills. Offer our selves.

We’ve all seen that every time a catastrophe happens, people rally. We come together and offer what we have. We pitch in to help each other, scrounge up sustenance, and provide emotional and energetic support (if not also tangible and fiscal support as well). We don’t stop to ask about politics or who you voted for. We tap into our humanity. We tap into our shared experience.

Embrace Beaver Energy

I yearn to be challenged by our leaders to be visionary and innovative. Don’t you?

So much more is possible when we work together and hold each other up. So much more is possible when we embrace our Beaver energy.

Come on. You knew I’d bring some archetypal animal medicine into this, didn’t you?

Embrace your hope. Embrace your wit. Embrace your intelligence, your inspiration, and your passion. And be vigilant about giving your power to or believing anyone who would tell you that your woes and miseries are someone else’s ‘fault.’ That the ‘other’ (who would actually give you the coat off their back) is someone to be feared, hated, or bullied.

We are in this together. We need to believe. In us.

(T-1025)