A Letter to my Children

     My dear daughters: 

     I was hoping to share with you this morning the glow of making history together. Yesterday, I really felt our connection as women for the first time. Your initiatory Presidential election vote offered perhaps the starkest differential between candidates this nation has ever seen. I truly believe our responsibility is to vote for the best candidate first, regardless of gender or race or religion, and it was a triumph to be able to choose superior intellect and experience residing in the character of a strong woman. We still won that. Hillary Rodham Clinton won the battle for integrity, never compromising her compassion for people with her drive to keep the country safe and prosperous.

     Don't despair. We are Americans. We. Are. Americans. We voted. We will continue to vote and choose our own government, and that -- for all its periodic tumult -- is one of the greatest blessings of our nation. Your voice did count, and it will count again.

     It is time now to listen. It's time to understand why Donald Trump was elected. It's time, as women, to combine our own compassion with our intellect and see where we can say "yes, I hear you, let's work together to try something new here". Anger, entrenching deeper and planting our self-righteous flags, name-calling, and cynicism do not serve our country -- and they fester in our souls. Retreating into self-pity does the same.

     We are women. We have the gift of compassion and connection. Enough people in our country are so hurting or fearful that they voted us into this new territory. I challenge you, my daughters, just as I challenge myself, to tune your hearts towards that hurt and fear, and find some way to be open to what needs to change. Ignore the chest-thumping. Learn mediation skills. Build on your own values: take our angry, fearful, poor, rich, disconnected fellow citizens out into the forests or mountains or parks near you, exposing them to beauty. Build gardens together; create art. In every person you encounter, find the inner place where you connect. There is spirit in every one of us, and from your strengths, you might be able to be part of the Great Healing that needs to happen.

     I realize this is for you too, my son. It's not just women that are hurting today, and it's not just women who can be compassionate. Bring your gifts to this work we need to do together, and perhaps in four years when you vote in your first Presidential election, it will be a different story. Now, let's hug each other, and let's get going.

Love, Mom