A Better America

Hearts Broken, Eyes Open, We Vote for a Fairer and More Compassionate Nation

Last night, I shared the thread below on Twitter. Looking back over the last four difficult years, I can see how many gifts we’ve been given. We’ve had our hearts broken, our eyes opened, and found new friends along the way. Millions have dreamed, marched, and worked for a better America, one that is fairer and more compassionate. We are different than we were in some surprisingly good ways.

Encourage someone today. Pray. Speak up for love and justice. If you haven’t already done so, please vote.

Here’s the thread:

You can read the thread on Twitter here.

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INSPIRATION:

You are made, fundamentally, from the good.
With this knowledge, you never march alone.

You are the breaking news of the century.
You are the good who has come forward

Through it all, even if so many days
Feel otherwise.
- Alberto Ríos

Elections belong to the people. It's their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters. 
― Abraham Lincoln

To abandon politics means leaving the structuring of society to those who are most concerned to serve their own interests. It means letting the Pharaohs and monarchs and Caesars and domination systems, ancient and modern, put the world together as they will. In a democracy, politics in the broad sense does include how we vote. But it also includes more: what we support in our conversations, our contributions, monetary and otherwise, our actions. Not every Christian is called to be an activist. But all are called to take seriously God’s dream for a more just and nonviolent world.
—Marcus Borg

To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.
And know there is more
That you can’t see, can’t hear;
Can’t know except in moments
Steadily growing, and in languages
That aren’t always sound but other
Circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning
Over Salt River. Circled in blue sky
In wind, swept our hearts clean
With sacred wings.
We see you, see ourselves and know
That we must take the utmost care
And kindness in all things.
Breathe in, knowing we are made of
All this, and breathe, knowing
We are truly blessed because we
Were born, and die soon within a
True circle of motion,
Like eagle rounding out the morning
Inside us.
We pray that it will be done
In beauty.
In beauty.
—Joy Harjo

Citizenship is a way of being in the world rooted in the knowledge that I am a member of a vast community of human and nonhuman beings that I depend on for essentials I could never provide for myself. 
― Parker J. Palmer

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