I had high hopes this year but sometimes the bad guy wins. In life there isn’t always a happy ending. Sometimes the story lines that stick with us the most are the ones where things don’t go the way we want them to. The lessons that can be gained from not getting what you want can be powerful.

It’s funny that Trump’s favorite song to play at his rally’s and now his “thank you tour” is a great classic by The Rolling Stones. “You can’t always get what you want but if you try sometimes you get what you need.” This song was brought to my attention when I was reading a great motivational book years ago called “Divine Intuition.” I never thought I’d be hearing it over and over again to introduce someone who could not be any farther from having a divine intuition.

But that really captures the essence of Trump; nothing is as it seems. Lies, lies and more lies to make up for the earlier ones. He shows a total lack of accountability, maturity, honesty, empathy, intellect, responsibility, or kindness. A moronic, sexist bully is going to be our president like it or not.

So yes, we hope the story will end in peace and happiness, and yet when it does not go that way, when it ends in sorrow we are ultimately not surprised because that is an outcome we are familiar with. Life is suffering. This is at the core of buddhism. And not just sometimes but at it’s core life as we know it is ultimately a struggle.

Some like myself are more willing to say it than others. I try to honor my shadow because I can’t help but be what I feel. If I feel something that is troubling it is difficult for me to not be in it, to revel in it a little bit in an attempt to understand it. I will never be able to overcome my own suffering if I don’t understand it’s reasons and I can’t understand the reasons if I don’t admit to the suffering in the first place. You have to be honest with yourself. Sometimes its ok to feel like life sucks because sometimes it does.

Life as we know it can be difficult, harsh at times. It’s been that way for us for a long time. Deep down we are used to it and actually in modern times, it’s easier than it was in previous lives. After all how bad can a Trump America be compared to the French Revolution or communist Russia?

We are living on a thin line between love and hate. There is an anger and tension in the air. It has been layering for a long time, hundreds of years, thousands of years of strife and struggle. And it all seems to be coming back around, circling back to us and beginning to take shape before us.

I was heart broken the night Donald Trump became the future President of the United States. Ultimately it wasn’t the literal fact that this person had just attained the highest office in the land. It was because of what it said about where we are in terms of our evolution toward inclusiveness and love, truth and understanding. For people that believed we were moving forward, that we’d turned a corner, November 9 was a crushing blow and a huge surprise. We were innocent and naive enough to believe that we were now living in a world where fear, greed, and lies would no longer win. We were wrong.

We woke up Wednesday morning with a powerful message, “there is more work to be done.” We aren’t there yet. We continue to struggle with fighting the past and shaking off our constant disappointment that we just aren’t there yet. “There” being a new age, a society of love, freedom, connection, learning and acceptance. However, we have to remember this is still our destination at the end of this long journey. We may have lost the battle but we will win the war.

The call that there is more work to be done is discouraging at first but then you realize fighting for a purpose is one of the greatest experiences as a human. This is a fight worth fighting and the light will always win, the truth will always win in the end, love will always win. It just takes time. Ultimately buddhism is not a hopeless religion, it’s a beautiful religion that honors that we must take on our suffering, we must work to reap what we deem important, and ultimately unconditional love will end our human suffering.

Nothing just happens. We have to create it. We have to be the spark of fire on a dark cold night. It comes from us, from our intention, from our desire, our passion, our intestinal fortitude, our sadness. The time to sit by idly has ended. You must pay attention. Be aware of the times. This is our world, we can’t expect it to be the way we want it if we pay no mind to it. The country, the planet is demanding our attention. Care about what is happening because it is important.

Speak your truth because whatever you have to say needs to be said. Put it out there, say what you feel, be what you feel. Contribute to creation in these troubling times. The world needs you. We will get through this and we will get where we are going eventually. We are going to a higher place, a higher life.

Life on Earth is endlessly filled with curve balls, changes of direction, retrogrades. Life on earth is just never as easy as we’d like it to be. But all we can do is shake our heads and laugh. Because we know, while we may not always want to, we have the power to overcome anything. This too shall pass and one day long from now, I’ll look out at a beautiful pink sunset and remember the sadness I felt when I thought hope was lost on a Tuesday night in 2016.
Hope is never really lost. It can be lost in a moment but not in a lifetime. There is always hope.

The time has come. The time has come to speak up.The time has come to fight back. The time has come to love. The time has come to be true. The time has come to feel what you feel. The time has come to trust in the universe. Everything happens for a reason. Trust in this and hope for a better tomorrow.