During my time observing politics, day trading chatrooms, romantic relationships, and corporate culture there is an unfortunate trend that I have seen time and time again.  I call it handing over the leash. 

Handing over the leash happens when people will give over power and control of their life and critical life decisions. This is often done because of a mix of mental laziness, self-doubt, and fear of making a wrong choice, therefore not wanting to take on accountability, or weight of guilt and shame that comes from making a wrong decision. If we give the decision over to another person we think is smarter or more talented and it does not work out we can say, "I was following them. It's their fault, not mine". This pushes off criticism and accountability to someone else. Side note, how funny when things work out the same person will take credit for it and minimize the guidance they took to get to that decision. Humans are funny that way. The good ideas are mine, the bad ideas are someone else's. 

So handing over the leash. Think about it, a good exercise to do in your journal is to take inventory of people who you feel have control over your life. Look at the way that you have handed over the decision making to them. What is the fear guiding that position? What can you do to mitigate that fear?

Who decides what you do today? Your boss, your spouse, your parents? Is it you? Is it really you?  

You will say, "I have no choice". Many feel they have no choice however I invite you to sit with that for a moment. Do you have no choice or are you terrified to take responsibility and accountability? Could you take on the emotional weight if you were the reason the family couldn't make rent this month? Or what if you were the reason the team didn't win the big game? Take an example that applies for you. What do high-stakes consequences look like to you?

What is keeping you from being the best person to make that decision? 

Do you need: 

• More information?
• More time?
• More training?
• More experience? 
• More boundaries? 

Let's dig in to these. 

More information. Do you feel like you are not the one to be in charge because you don't know enough about it? So many deflect important political or financial decisions because they think someone else knows more about it than them. There is so much to know and they feel overwhelmed.

However, when you think about those who have the information they obtained it by studying, acquiring training, and through experience. It is by going through the process of doing "the thing" that we obtain the information to make better decisions later. Because here is the thing, of course you can read, take a course, have mentors. That is a good thing to do because you can dodge avoidable mistakes. At the same time you have to learn what works for you. One of the toughest lessons for me was learning that what works for them didn't work for me. Learning what works for you requires risk. It requires failure to learn cause and effect. I requires learning what works and celebrating the little wins. Tracking data is part of that process many times. Trusting your inner knowing and intuition also plays a major part in good decision making.
You may find that you have more information than you think from your lived experiences.

More time. There are a lot of people that quit or feel like they were a failure because an outcome didn't happen in the timeframe they had expected. Many big goals can take several years longer than originally expected to accomplish. That's not failure. That can be a difficult lesson to learn. For example, when learning day trading. There were so many layers of information, so many variables to take in at one time. There were so many 'psychological muscles' to develop in order to facilitate a successful trade. That takes many years to be able to take in all of that information in spilt seconds in order to do what needs to be done for a successful trading experience. It may take one person more time to develop that skill set than another. It's not failure if it takes you 5 years instead of 3. Or if it takes 10. Everyone is on a different timeline. Honor every journey. 

More training. Perhaps specific training is needed. Whether it is to learn lingo, processes, how to use specific platforms or tools. It is a benefit to speak to people who have been there before and have made the mistakes and know what to do. Experience is invaluable. However, when learning from others understand that situations change over time. It is important to keep information up to date. Can you image the world 5, 10, 30 years ago? Lately just a few moths can feel like a completely different world when it comes to culture, expectations, priorities of life. So with training maintain information and make sure your training is up to date for your area of interest and the expertise you wish to develop is essential to success. 

More experience. This is self explanatory you need more experience. With more experience comes confidence. Confidence leads to less fear in the decision making process. Less doubt. Begin to expect success instead of loss. It is tied into what we have already discussed with information and training. Let's move on. 

More boundaries. I typed 'More boundaries' for continuity. Stronger boundaries is more like it. It's about control. Coming full circle to the beginning of the conversation. When we give financial power away by depending on someone else to pay the bills. When we give emotional power away by depending on others for emotional regulation or validation to feel ok about ourselves. When we set our sense of happiness outside of ourselves and outside of our control. These are examples of ways we pass the leash to someone else. Working every day to claw back that control in small and significant ways all adds up. Why do we do this? 

The most compelling reasons that I have found to do this important work is that when we give the decision making over to someone else, we hand over results to someone else, and more times than not the results are disappointing. Of course there may be some short term satisfaction to say to someone else "you messed this up". Rather than feeling the weight of it being our fault, right? However, when you move with intention. When you guide the process then it is yours. There is power in that. I would be curious to hear, because I think that you will find that when you do take your own leash and intentionally guide yourself through the process of life you will find the results to be more successful and gratifying. 

There is a saying that goes, "Not my circus, not my monkeys." Which is the release of responsibility for outcomes in another individual's life. This presumes that resolution of the issue is not in the outsider's control. Therefore, release any thought or concern and go about your day fulfilling your obligations and outcomes. This is the way of thinking many with material success utilize. Focus on making money that's all that matters anyway, right? 

Conversely, on the other side of this plight are the sufferers. Those who are going through it. Those who resent others who do not engage with their pain and suffering and don't help out. There seems to be this competition about who suffers the most and whose suffering should mean more. We as society seem to have created tiers of suffering based on race, class, and political affiliation as well as other things. No actual rules have been written out anywhere but we all seem to have an innate sense of what they are. People want you to care about their pain and relieve it, even if it has nothing directly to do with you. We are affiliated with groups. Sometimes voluntarily and sometimes accidently by circumstances outside of our choosing or control. A labelling of people in broad strokes and terms occurs. Sometimes a person will fit the stereotype of that group. However, people are complex and don't always fit in neat labels.

Do people have the right to be judged for their individual character and abilities? 

All of that to say. What mental, emotional, material load of someone else's struggle are we morally obligated to take on ourselves? If it is 'not my circus, not my moneys' it may seem easy to walk away from it all and go about one's day. The only real problem with that is that it allows the imbalance to continue. At some point the wolf comes to everyone's door and the thing about not doing anything about it when it was someone else's problem, is that when it becomes your problem there isn't anyone willing or able to help you out. So it indeed becomes your circus and monkeys then. 

All people live on a spectrum about how much empathy they have for one another. Biases play a part in decisions of engagement. Being out of sight, out of mind, plays a part. It can be extremely overwhelming to engage in the all the atrocities happening. The genocides, the abuses, natural disasters, the extraction and destruction of the natural world. We curse the billionaire and corporations while simultaneously pumping dollars to them and participating with all labor and resources they need. That's how they got so powerful, individuals didn't do it by themselves. Even evil political leaders didn't do the actions by themselves. Far be it for them to get their hands dirty doing the actual labor. So everyone is a participant on some level in creating the horrors of the day. Where is the line? Of course there are consequences and pain associated with any decision. We don't get to choose whether or not to feel pain only the pain we feel. Yet, what pain can we experience and cause and still be able to look at the person in the mirror and still feel good about it?

So what do you choose? Do you choose the pain of engagement and the reality of what is breaking down in the world in order to fully address the issues with the urgency they deserve. To prioritize the solution over cost or pain associated with it? Or do you choose to pretend life is exactly as it was years ago and keep chugging seeing how long you can push off any consequences impacting your life directly? 

I really don't know the answer. As an empath it is extremely difficult for me to turn away from the pain of others. That being said I have none of the power, resources, or capabilities at this time to make any significant material change in anyone situation. What everyone wants is money. If you don't have tons of money to give them to buy resources and influence what good are you to them?

So this is a thought I am struggling with lately. What are your thoughts on the matter? What are you taking into consideration as you decide for yourself what your circus and monkeys are in the world?   

It's Memorial Day in the United States today. 

My heart and mind is with those who died in the line of duty serving the United States in the military. On days like this they say "don't make it political". They say this because they are only thinking about the bodies. The politicians and brands want to pull the troops out and use their bodies as props. Associating your brand to a wall of uniforms pumps up that masculine energy and that strong prideful fantasy, the gladiator thirst for blood that has been passed down through the centuries. Using bodies as props, bodies as entertainment, bodies as chess pieces on a board, the NPC of the game. 

But they aren't NPCs. They are humans with families and people who love them. People who miss them and wanted them to come home and play the role that they did in their community's lives. People from which the brands and politicians ceaselessly extract blood while detesting their very existence. They demand the wall of uniforms on holidays, but what about the children left behind when their parent is sacrificed? How quickly they will pull away their school lunch, their food subsidies and healthcare. That is an act of violence. Cruel and unusual to starve a child and fund a military parade. The heartless political manipulation of people's bodies. It's a horrific atrocity that we have become to familiar with, way too comfortable. 

Each person being honored today was loved by somebody. Someone misses them and wishes they were home. They would want their buddies who remain behind to have the resources and care they need and earned doing the work of running towards danger while others were running away and bringing the fallen back home to be laid to rest, honored and remembered. These are not commodities they are human beings. Let's remember that today as many enjoy the pools, beaches, and barbeques, the extra day off. Remember the sacrifice for the freedoms that some of us so easily give away. 

I was on a hike today and had this moment of clarity. 

I will walk and just let my mind go blank and see what comes up for me. 

Today it was love. All the people that I loved, you know I say loved but the love is still there, that's what this blog is about. You can love someone deeply and infinitely but that doesn't mean that they are meant to come along with you on your life's journey. That is a tough one to learn. 

Because despite emotions, fascinations, or the mesmerizing aspect of being wildly attracted or in love with someone does not in any way assure that you can live with each other day-to-day. That is the greatest challenge. When you care about someone, however your values and priorities have too much of a gap. When you are totally into someone, but the way they choose to spend their day is not in alignment with your talents or interests. For example, I spend a lot of my free time hiking. I have had men in my life who absolutely hated to hike so either they didn't go, or when they did go they bitched and complained about it so much it was a miserable experience. I have decided that should I find myself in another relationship one thing to clear off the bat is whether they are into hiking or outdoor activities. Because that is probably where we would share most of our free time. That is not to say I couldn't do other things as well. But why not hang out with someone who was going to be hiking on a Saturday morning anyway so that there doesn't have to be a constant tension? 

Living with someone is probably one of the most emotionally challenging things I've done. Compromising. Living up to someone else's expectations of what is acceptable. Having them live up to yours. The constant tension of the household and all that goes along with it. The constant tension of time and how it should be spent. Money management priorities. Tension if you are not in alignment on so many preferences and behaviors can add up over time no matter how attracted people are to one another. 

Settling versus choosing self. That is a tough one as well especially when you do catch deep feelings for someone. It is tempting to want to pretend. To want to fit into a mold. It's easy to find out who someone wants you to be and play the role to keep their attention to attempt to keep them around. Plenty of people are in these types of relationships. But it wears on people. From the relationships that I've seen usually one of two things happen generally speaking. Either one day someone finally loses their mind and does the F it I am out! And the relationship dissolves. Conversely, what I have seen is that two people stay in the relationship but live separate lives and often use substances to numb out the feeling that something is missing in the connection. It's easier to not think about your relationship failing if you are distracted or asleep. They know that's what is happening but they don't engage with the reality and decades pass by. It's kind of weird when people start waking up and look over across the bed disappointed that the other partner isn't dead so they don't have to feel the guilt of breaking up. But that's what a lot of people do after awhile. It's sad on both sides. Sad to know that's how your partner feels about you and sad to be the one that feels trapped in a zombie relationship. 

Also to any zombie relationship people out there. I think it's interesting that these people think it is some kind of secret. But EVERYBODY knows. You can tell when people feel affection for one another. Your kids are going to feel it as well. You can feel the tension between people who are tolerating each other on behalf of children and finances. People stay together to keep up appearances. I think that is even more painful than being alone. That being said everyone has to make decisions for themselves. As is said in many of my blogs, we don't get a no-pain option of life we just get to choose the kinds of pain we wish to feel. 

So all that to say. Love alone is not enough. But the love will always be there. That doesn't mean it's a good idea to try to keep something that isn't working going if it's causing tension all of the time. It's better to call it and open up the space for a romantic opportunity more in alignment with values, priorities and interests. Be happy and find someone who can be happy with you. 

Until next time... 

Something I don't think gets thought about enough is the importance of being alone in order to recalibrate to your personal vibration. We each have our own electromagnetic vibration. Something that is uniquely ours. Not sure what I am talking about? Go find someone you know and before you stand next to them take an inventory about how you feel in your body. Now go stand next to them, close your eyes, and feel for a moment, take another inventory of how you feel do you feel it? There is a joke that kids used to play when in the backseat on a long road trips when parents said to keep our hands to ourselves and we would get very close to touching but not. It's annoying. But it kind of makes the point. 

So much of our lives we are in public spaces or sharing space with others that in order to harmonize with the group we tend to lose our special vibration. So many other vibrations and frequencies constantly bombarding us and over time it can feel stressful, feels exhausting to constantly be in the mode of making corrections to make those around us comfortable. Perhaps as a more sensitive and introverted person it has more of an impact on me. However, I think that even those who are known for having absolutely no ability to read the room. Even they feel the tension of co-presence that is a word I just made up but I think it fits the situation. Like a tuning fork with many other tuning forks' tones bouncing off of it. Sometimes the tuning fork just needs room by itself to ring at its own tone. To recalibrate an be at peace, and one with itself. 

I think this is way more important than society would think. Because society rarely speaks of it. It is also a side effect of living a low income lifestyle. Have you ever noticed how luxury equates to space, to privacy, to acres of buffer between people? Privacy, space, surrounded in nature. Lots of quiet places to think and vibrate at your own frequency. Not in constant assess and defend mode perpetually considering other energies. Whereas what happens when the budget for living is tight? People packed into public places, loud and constant noise, a high number of frequencies bouncing off of each other, stress pheromones prevalent in the air,  these are not conditions to think, to connect to self,  to plan, or do anything mindful really. Of course, over time there will be people who will adapt and become resilient. The way people adapt to cold or heat. But should they have to? Is it healthy? Is it a humane existence to constantly be in environments that never allow a person to get out of constant external surveillance mode? Needing to be in constant surveillance in order to harmonize with the group to get along? It causes a great deal of stress.

How much time do you schedule for alone time to vibe at your own vibration? 
I would say even if you can get away for 20 minutes a day there would be a vast improvement to decompress, to do breath work, to connect with Spirit and get your bearings. This would create a vast improvement. Larger swaths of time are of course more beneficial but it all depends on times of life and what is available. Take time to breath deep, ground your energy, connect to Spirit for the downloads of the day. What can you learn, what service is to be shared with others, taking a brief diagnostic to check in with yourself and see what the priorities of the day are for you. If 20 minutes aren't available try 5 even if it is in the bathroom there have been many times in my life when that was the only moment of privacy I was afforded to reset and get going once again. Recalibrating to self allows one to live from the inside out with intention instead of living in external reaction mode all the time which can become overwhelming and debilitating over time. 

So take some time alone. Vibe at your own vibration and feel free to come back and let me know how it worked for you in the comment section. 

Until next time... 

This is from a post from my Threads account. If you'd like to, feel free to follow me on Threads or any of the other socials that you prefer. 

We lost a hiker this week. She was found 600 feet from the trail. She liked to record videos etc. Many do here in Arizona up the street from my place. It’s the time of year that claims hikers. 🕯️

When you are hiking in Arizona:

1. Go early in the morning when it’s cool.

2. Stay on the trails.

3. Tell people what trail you are on keep location on on your phone for someone to be able to find you keep phone fully charged.

4. Bring more water than you think you need.

5. Summer is not the time to go for your personal best. Stay within your known limits the heat is very tricky and can lull you into a false sense of security until suddenly you’ve lost control of your bodily functions.

Most of all. We love the selfies but watch where you are stepping in the desert. I have some scars from learning that lesson to remind me. The desert is beautiful and it will absolutely take you out if you don’t respect the position that you are in. Enjoy hiking! Be smart. Live to hike another day 🌞🕶️🌵

​Until next time... 

In 2021, due to a strange situation I found myself pulled into this vortex that included interacting with a group of day traders. During that time I was fascinated and almost by accident learned some day trading techniques. I was no where near as obsessed as I would need to be to be a professional. Every now and then however, I'll open the platform and make some "coffee money". I enjoy it. And I enjoy hanging out and listening to day traders. They are very interesting in many ways. I had a lot of laughs and good times with them. 

I was reflecting upon my time there today. The most heart wrenching and meaningful lesson I learned wasn't necessarily about entry, target, exit and stop loss areas. Support, resistance, the patterns with proven edge. All of those things are useful to know as well as many other tricks of the trade. However, what really hit me hard and still does, and always will is that you can pick an amazing pattern, you can do everything right, and there will be times when your trade will stop out and not work anyway. I think that is the most difficult lesson both in trading and the expanded experience of life. When you did absolutely nothing wrong but because we share this world with billions of other people. We share the market with millions of other people. They are all making decisions for their own reasons and priorities. There are just too many variables to take in at one time and therefore we just can't predict or factor them all in. We can only do our best in that particular moment. Be able to properly process, grieve what we wish would have been, and let go. Set up for the next opportunity. Some are harder to walk away from than others. But walking away and setting up for the next opportunity is part of the game. May the next trade or opportunity be so wonderful that the hurt of loss is soothed and the joy overcomes the pain. 

The important thing is not to get too far up into your head about it. For me, I find my brain is constantly looking to fill in the gap of unknown information. What could I have done better, what did I miss? And that is good to do. But it is not good to overdo. Because many times whether it is market forces, society, or unknown desires of those who you interact with that are kept from you on purpose. These realities exist. And so we do the best we can and we move on. 

Over an entire lifetime (of course there are always outliers but for the most part) things will work themselves out. Cycles will come and cycles will go. Enjoy the good ones, and learn from the challenging ones. 

Until next time...  

On the healing journey there comes a time when it's time to ask. Do you find your personal value is based in your endurance of pain? 

Because it would be so messed up to come to the conclusion that you didn't get ANYTHING for going through everything that you've been through, right? Like a heavy cinder block, the memory tied to it's victim pulling them down. The return again and again to feel what happened once more. To dissect, to analyze, run different scenarios of what should have happened. Perhaps to have someone care and tell you that you didn't deserve it, to validate that it wasn't supposed to happen, that you didn't deserve it, or to say that there is nothing that you could have done differently. To hear these words to set you free. The amount of time of that original event may have been minutes, hours, days. Yet the visitations have taken up years, decades, sometimes an entire lifetime. Because there was never a release a detachment from the pain. 

In my personal journey, I came to the conclusion that there was a part of me that wanted credit for having gone through it. That is what made me special my ability to endure the pain and since I wasn't winning at the game of life I began to change the game. She who endures the most pain wins! So more pain came into my life and I endured that too. Score! But of course it wasn't a score. It tore me down and tore me up. It destroyed my nervous system until one day I couldn't get up. I couldn't bounce back. I was in complete burn out. There is no value in enduring pain. Staying in a dead situation. Showing up to the blender of someone's emotional or physical abuse. To endure neglect or rejection of love over and over again.

There are no martyr points. 

It is up to us to create a life we enjoy living. That we create a home that is full of joy, laughter, and a regulated nervous system. Find like minded individuals to surround yourself with and experience supportive connections and exchanges. The same with our mind. If your mind is a battlefield then nothing new can grow. It may be difficult to release the past. Like a version of survivors' guilt to let go of it especially when certain events shaped us. But I invite you to jump into a new timeline of life and the past can't come with you for the same reason why you wouldn't bring in last year's garbage into a brand new home. Don't take what is dead and rotting from the past and bring it into your new space. That doesn't make sense. Neither does it make sense to hold on to that which should not come with you. Take the lessons, the good times, that made you who you are and move into the totally new. It will be ok. There is a good chance that things will get better. 

As a journal prompt really get into those "cinder block" moments that hold you in your pain.

Write down what comes up for you.

What is serving you by being there?

Are you visiting someone you loved and lost?

Is it to feel the pain again to beg someone to care about it?

To feel the injustice and the self-righteousness that springs from it?

Or something else?

There is no judgement we all go through these feelings. Then as you reread these thoughts one must make a decision and I can't make it for you, you must make it for yourself. Whether a new healthier experience means more to you than the value placed on enduring the feelings of the cinder block moments? The visits, the decisions made long ago. If you find that yes you are ready then let go. It may take some time for the release to take full effect. Some people notice a difference right away some a year or two later, and everything in between. It is an individual journey. It all depends on how deeply embedded the memory's effects are and the commitment to release. But you'll get there. Give yourself patience and grace. But also have the discipline to continue looking forward. Never look back again. Life is for the living, so get out there and live it well. 

Until next time.  

I was thinking today that I am so lucky. 

I am lucky in these moments that are hard to share with other people. 

These are what I like to call Disney Princess moments. 

For example, yesterday when I rolled over in the morning to see a humming bird peeping at me through my window. That felt special. This morning I took a hike and there were all these desert critters, birds, bunnies, little prairie dogs.  All flittering and scurrying around me. Pretty songs of the song birds. I wished them a good morning and put up a little prayer about how happy I was in that moment. It's those moments. Free of cost, just in the presence of nature feeling special and beautiful and connected to nature all around me. Those are the moments that bring me joy and comfort no matter how strange and dangerous the world can feel on a macro level. 

I am not interested in corporate life.
 
Corporate life is so separated from this feeling. The polar opposite from what makes me happy in fact. 

There are many things that I can do without, that I sacrifice so that I can be out in nature more often feeling real freedom. I hate playing the game. It's not worth it. 

Not to me. 

Anyway, I am so grateful for the Disney Princess moments. 

How blessed am I to experience them? Very. 

These moments just for me. Every time I try to take a picture or share it with others it dissolves

I can never seem to capture it on camera.  It's just for me. How cool is that? :) 

Humans make life way more complicated than it needs to be. 

Until next time. 

Hello all. 

Today I want to talk about working with resistance. 

Because frankly the inspiration hasn't been coming lately. 

And so there is this question, do I not put out anything at all? 

How long can that go on? The algo demands content, right? 

So today I talk about the resistance. 

This feels like an ongoing tension that I constantly exist in. The demand of production versus the not doing. A mentor of mine recently took some time off, an earlier retirement. Getting used to not having to answer the bell every morning is an adjustment. Some urge to be productive pulls on him still. I very much related to that sentiment. 

I have the time, but not the ability, to let go of the time clock if not the notion that my value comes from my production. The fear that if I am not seen as the proper kind of productive I will be rejected in some way. It's all about production. Is it though? 

And so here I am typing this out. Producing. Not sure how valuable it is. But I am doing it. Showing up, for whatever that is worth. Working through this fog of resistance. Acknowledging that sometimes the words are not there. The words at times will not be there for an amount of time that is both uncomfortable and even scary. I could always count on the words being there before, and lately the just aren't. Taking time to give myself permission to take care of me first. First, before the words, before the production, before the ravenous greed of the algo.
​Because if I don't, who will? 

I apologize for the lack of cohesion in my past few posts.

Posting through the resistance.

I think it will get better.

But it is not better right now. 

Until next time.  

It is interesting but not surprising to see the reactions of people when they are being tested by Spirit.

This is a test of the galactic energy system, this is only a test. 

When times get tough we see who runs, who stands, and who cuts self-serving deals. 
If history students from the future were to ask me about this time in America. I would say that my biggest shock and surprise was how many people took a step back, capitulated, and took deals instead of just ending a stupid mistake of voting a 34 time convicted felon to be president. Trump has always seen himself as dictator and mob boss. He was a straight up snake out front. He never asked for redemption. It was the way people just accepted the propaganda. How tied they all were into labels and titles like President, Attorney General, and all the rest that they didn't accept the obvious lies as lies. The mental gymnastics they partook in to make the madness fit somehow in their minds is a breathtaking spectacle to watch unfold before us in terrifying speed. 

I don't understand how so many didn't see what was happening. How so many saw it all as business as usual. No big deal we will just play the game of political volleyball we've been playing since the Regan years. Bouncing power back and forth without much of a change no matter who had the ball on their side of the net. It's just wild to me all of it. How many hid away instead of executing the procedures of the emergency levers that were available to them in the Constitution. I call them the crickets. Because when we demanded they do their jobs all we heard were the chirps of crickets. Those who were in charge of stewardship, the guardians nowhere to be found. Not sure what they were thinking? That they would be spared if they cooperated but they were thrown out into the streets too anyway. So what good did that get them? 

As time went on we got to the place where we are now. Where the people who could have done the job have been dismissed were forced out. So they don't have access to the tools that would have made a reset a whole lot easier. But instead of crying over spilled milk what I would like to say to all of this is -- of course. 

To be hired onto these positions one had to be a conformists. Sycophants were installed in positions of power in charge of making the critical decisions. And sure, everyone has their struggles in life, I am not saying that the veterans in these positions didn't know struggle, of course they did. But their struggle was in the confines of a system that for the most part took care of them. They were symbiotic to its cause. They were ok with the daily atrocities for the most part. It offered a nice union protected salary and benefits package. These aren't the people who will run to put out a fire. They did their time. They just wanted steady unbothered work until guaranteed retirement. They stared frozen as the flames of authoritarianism came to their door.

If they weren't forced to move by the layoffs and pressures to resign, they might not have done anything at all. It is their job to serve I suppose they would say. But there are fundamental problems with this system if no one saw this coming. There were signs for decades. When it was brought to the attention of those who could have done something to protect against it, they were benefitting too greatly from the system to have any concern about it. Where was their attention all of this time to have this inevitable disaster creep up on them? Or did they think they would be included in the spoils of it all? I think many just thought this is America there is no way this could happen here. It is unprecedented we have strong institutions. Well it happened here. The institutions let us down so far. Unless there is some amazing miracle that happens before July we are as the children say cooked.

This we'll cross that bridge when we come to it mentality from the "leadership" of our institutions was dismissive and insulting. Well now the bridge is on fire. They scatter in self- preservation. Making it obvious that we the American People are left to handle this on our own. Without all the fancy institutions that we pay our tax dollars to so that we wouldn't be left to deal with things like this on our own. These government workers that benefitted from tax payer dollars who were now released to experience the suffering pains of poverty and lack that they were perfectly fine allowing others to live under indefinitely. Because they weren't supposed to be partisan. I get that, but what was creeping up in America wasn't normal, nor was it American it was a set up for a coup. Now they feel the lack of protection of the system that they stood behind for all of these years. It will be interesting to see what comes of this moment. What this talent does with this crushing experience now that it happened to them personally. It is very likely that after the dust settles and the mess gets cleaned up whenever that occurs we can come out stronger and better as a nation. The uncertainty is there though. We don't know when that might happen given the current trajectory of events. 

All this being said I have Faith that something better is being birthed from all of this mess. This is forcing America to decide who we are, what our common values are, and what we stand for. In the end there will be cases that can be referred to in the future. If you haven't donated to the ACLU but love democracy please consider a  donation they have been saving our butts when the institutions abandoned us. Their incredible efforts give us the greatest sense of hope during these troubling times. 

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