BY KIMBERLY MAYER
“Hang onto your hat, hang onto your hope and wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.”
E.B. White
One day there will be a word for what we went through recently, in this election. Suffice it to say the presidential debate on June 27 did us all in. Our president was getting on in years, and so it was gloom and doom time amongst friends on island. Nevertheless, Democrats marched in the 4th of July parade on island without a name on their signs. Marching with messages, marching through the morning.
We were on our own, it seemed.
Everyone I know was practicing self-care. I began asking others, “What did you do to pull yourself through?” Walking, birding, kayaking, baking. Listening to more music, seeing more films, and reading more books than ever. What more can one do? Working remotely at our home, our daughter paddle boarded off toward the horizon at the end of every day. It seemed endless. One dear friend wonders, “I am trying to think, did I cope?”
I found my way, as I often do in times of trouble, to the labyrinth at St. David’s Episcopal Church in Friday Harbor. Labyrinths are designed for walking meditation and have been practiced for thousands of years, long before Christianity. I can’t explain why but it works. Walking a labyrinth is mindfulness that looks mindless. There is only one path to follow from the outside to the center and back out again. No decisions, no wrong turns possible. You think you’re getting there, and you’re not. Just when you are spinning further away, suddenly you are there. Much like life.
And just like that, the winds changed and the tides turned and everything flipped when Joe Biden gave his seat in the upcoming election to his second in command, Kamala Harris. And soon a Vice Presidential candidate on top of all that. Now we’re all shining brightly and experiencing a lightness of being and unbridled joy.
Parade, anyone?!
Originally published in The Journal of the San Juan Islands 8/21/24
a little elbow room
a little elbow room 
Great read Kim and all so very true 🥰 Parade and hope for sure
Praying for us all!
“Did I cope?” is perhaps the best descriptor of all – too relatable and yet very simply true. Am here in Port Townsend at the moment trying to ride out another wave of “oh god what now” and this made me laugh and feel hope for what’s next. Love you!
Love you too. What I’d give to huddle together in readings at Goddard now.
Kim, you captured that feeling of dread — and then we had that amazing, fabulous, best-ever convention!! Go Kamala, Go! and Go, Go Tim!
If I could freeze myself in that week I would! Others have The Olympics, World Series, or Super Bowl. I had that. #harriswalz2024
Yes, did I cope?
This is either a time of deep despair or it is a time to learn what true humanity actually is. I’m digging my way out of one and reaching for the other.
That is what your piece means to me.
Thank you, again.
What a beautiful thing to say. Digging and reaching with you, my dear.