After I heard the news of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death late last week I found myself needing to repeat this phrase again and again.
All Will Be Well
When I first heard the news of her death I was in shock. What a beautiful warrior she was, doing what she felt needed to be done through all of her health issues. The grace, humor, and humanity that she always displayed inspires me. As does her brilliant intellect. Asked in an interview by Nina Totenberg about what her late husband Marty would have thought about a sex scene in the movie, “On the Basis of Sex,” about her, she replied with a mischievous grin, “Oh, he would have loved it.”
The thought of her valiant battle through numerous cancers ending now, and the possibility of her replacement being named by President Trump and ratified by the republican majority in the senate had me awake in the wee hours of the morning feeling bereft and hopeless.
Then I went back to Julian of Norwich’s quote that I have known for years. It brings me comfort in times that I feel despair:
I keep working hard to stay present and aware instead of imagining or catastrophizing what might happen. Yesterday I enjoyed listening to past interviews with RBG and reading remembrances of her. Seeing her spirit, persistence, humor, and deep abiding sense of purpose inspired me to live with a little more grace, persistence, and humor.
I asked myself,
What can I do now?
And this morning during my meditation I felt a clear sense of what I could do now. It’s something that no one will see or hear or necessarily feel. But I believe that it can help. I can send prayers of love and strength to those who make decisions in our government, especially the Republican senators who might actually follow their conscience instead of the dictates of the party. And I can send prayers for right resolution and can visualize the kind of society I want to live in. Sending light and love may make no difference but as I see it, it can’t hurt either. If nothing else, visualizing the kind of world I want to live in may help me to make different choices.
We are none of us all good or all bad. As the old Cherokee legend teaches us, we all have two wolves inside us, the fear wolf and the courage wolf.
One evening, an elderly Cherokee brave told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, ‘My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all.
One is evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other wolf is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.’
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked, ‘Grandpa, which wolf wins?’
The old Cherokee simply replied, ‘The one that you feed.’
Which wolf will you feed?
I hope that all will be well for you in the coming week.
May you walk in beauty.
A note about my blog: I am still “on stay-cation” but felt the need to write this morning about all that was swirling in my mind. I may begin writing a few posts here or there but don’t think that I will go back to daily posts for at least another week. And I may decide to lessen the frequency to a couple of times a week.
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