I saw red.

The color is overlaid onto the entirety of the USA map, and all around me there are people who voted for the red agenda: more economic and political conservative policies, increased punitive immigration reform, more religious influences, more overt expressions of misogyny.

And, uncharacteristically for me, I am seeing a rage- red in its fury, rise up in me since the elections. It boiled over into my peaceful state of mind, forcing me to increase my meditation and search for serenity.

I know many of you are feeling it too, this raw, redness in our being. What else is there to feel? How do I continue to breathe under the onslaught of the nose thumbing appointees being proposed in this new administration?

No doubt, I will continue to approach each day with intention: to stay present and mindful, and also to keep urging my fellows to develop a mindset that will allow us to keep our focus on what we know about building our community.

What I believe is that this new government, led by a conservative majority, will not reign forever.

That’s the thing about how the constitutional republic was designed. It has constantly changed many times over the past 200-plus years.

This last election outcome has been described by some, on both sides, as a harbinger for the long term direction of the country. But perhaps only in the short term; over the next four years.

The post-election pundits from both extremes are reacting with excitable utterances: dreadful doom and gloom from the left, and exuberant glee from the right.

The “ liberals” are anxious about wholesale reversals of every progressive measure adopted in the past 50 years (see Roe, civil rights, voting rights, DEI initiatives, affordable health care, to name a few) which have benefited Black and brown folks, and fear they will suddenly be trumped by climate denialism, anti-vaccination initiatives, alternative facts, etc.

These “liberals” have now been accused of flipping off what appears to be a majority of folks who fear rapid change; who voted for change.

The “conservatives” are celebrating a return to a time of relative comfort and ease, forgetting that struggle–for more security, improved living conditions, access to greater freedoms–is inherently part of the universal human experience too.

This past election was akin to a clash of titans, both strong, well-developed champions of a good two- way fight, and who both have their fair share of fan bases. But the outcome could only result in one winner, but with a loser who immediately goes into training for the next battle.

I say, just wait a minute. Take a pause.

The winds of change are still blowing around the country, so this storm will not cease creating longer.

turbulence for a while But I contend that Black folk who have been in the trenches of so many storms before, shifting our allegiances between political parties, voting our agenda more times than not, re-grouping after each and every setback, know what to do.

While I’m disappointed in the election outcome, I’m not discouraged and I will continue speaking out and taking appropriate action whenever I can.

Once I stopped seeing red, I’ve come to terms with the fact that my “neighbors” who voted for this return to a regressive governance, will get the country they deserve, and we will all get along.

After all, they will be living under the same vale of darkness as me.

Recently, I was advised by a retired military officer, who was embedded with Afghan women during our war over there, to adopt a proven survival tactic: run low and in a zigzag. She was spot on with that advice.

I think this is what Black folks have always done since we have kept up our fight under fire from our worst enemies: racism and classism, ignorance, and poverty, yet our path has, and will always remain, forward.