Make a plan

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back…always ineffectiveness.”
– W. H. Murray

Have you noticed how hard some people are working to make you afraid about the election this year? Every time I see a headline about this, I think of the “fight, flight, or freeze” responses that arise when we’re afraid.

None of those three responses are helpful when it comes to voting. We can’t begin to heal as a country until we’re all crystal clear about what matters to us and we communicate that with our vote.

To counter the fearmongering, I invite you to make a plan right now. Whether mailing in a ballot, early voting, or casting your ballot on election day, find out key dates, locations and times to vote, make your plan, and put it on your calendar.

In the September 24th daily summary of the news, The Morning, by David Leonhardt of The New York Times, Leonhardt reported “Social-science research has found that people who make a specific voting plan — exactly when and where they will vote — are more likely to do so than people who vaguely promise themselves that they will.”

Let your voting plan and any effort to encourage others to vote bring you peace, knowing you are doing what you can to make a difference.

And, as Paula D’Arcy and Craig Hella Johnson so beautifully reminded us this past Sunday, there is kindness and goodness always being revealed in the darkest moments and “love is always holding us.”

May you remember the power of your choices, choose to vote, and call upon the love that is holding you when you feel afraid.