I went to bed later than usual Tuesday night, waiting for the electoral returns.

I know many of us opted to forsake our nightly rituals in anticipation of a turning tide, pushing through another hour and another hour waiting to hear that somehow things weren’t the way they seemed.

Eventually I gave in. I went to bed, with a pit in my stomach, a bit extreme compared with my usual response to politics.

At 5:00 a.m. Wednesday morning, the pit was still there, perhaps the very thing that woke me up. It softened the blow when I saw the results, providing a cushion from shock, moving me instead right into grief.

Like many of us, so many that I saw on my social media feed in the minutes to follow, I sobbed. Like I’d lost a dear friend, I wept.

Then I asked myself what was truly underlying this deep sense of betrayal and despair and anger that I was witnessing in my own heart and the voices of those around me. It was a feeling of disempowerment, of disillusionment and a sense that perhaps hate was overtaking love.

With pen to paper, I worked to take my power back.

The following video is my attempt to give voice to the collective energy I witnessed on Wednesday morning, to the masses who now may feel they’ve been rendered voiceless.

These words are a call to action to feel the injustice fueling our tears and our rage, to reclaim our power and then to rise up in love to transform humanity from the inside out.

It’s time to use the still, small voice of love to call us back to truth, to empowerment and to the infinite potential for beauty to emerge from even the darkest of days.

~

Author: Rachael Pitts

Image:  Instagram @elephantjournal

Editor: Ashleigh Hitchcock