It’s a day after the inauguration …

and even those of us who are marching in different cities in the country are wondering what now. Some are angry, some are frightened, some are despairing, some are joyous. In times like these, I hold fast to what I know is true because it’s been true always and will still be true long after today, next year, five years from now.

I know that blaming someone, anyone hurts.

I know that what Gandhi said — “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind” — is true.

I know that clarity and calm, that fierce kindness and a willingness to question myself deeply opens my heart.

I know that fear makes a lousy bedfellow and that when I am afraid, I treat people around me with much less grace than they deserve. I also know that I make terrible decisions when I am afraid.

I know that until I own in myself the very same qualities I accuse
someone else of having, I am not done.

I know that I believe what Martin Luther King Jr. said: I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.

And I know these are challenging times, and they test us to stay true to what we know, to translate what we know into action, and to hold fast to the light in and around us.

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