{"id":1561,"date":"2020-09-02T14:05:21","date_gmt":"2020-09-02T18:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/?p=1561"},"modified":"2020-09-02T14:05:21","modified_gmt":"2020-09-02T18:05:21","slug":"dear-friends-do-not-let-despair-defeat-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/dear-friends-do-not-let-despair-defeat-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Dear Friends… Do Not Let Despair Defeat Us"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Dear Friends,
\nAnother week of living, breathing, grieving, working, and loving amidst a pandemic has passed and weeks of the same loom before us. In the midst of trying to navigate life with closed parameters, we witness more and more accounts of our fellow citizens being murdered and maimed, \u00a0white supremacists wielding weapons with the intent to kill protestors, and a president who encourages hateful division as his best method of retaining power.<\/p>\n

How are you managing? How is your heart? Mine is awash with grief and wrestling each day not to descend into despair. \u00a0It is from this place I am \u00a0urging \u00a0us not to succumb. Despair sucks the life out of our ability to hope \u00a0and paralyzes our ability to act. So I write \u00a0not to deny the despair you might be feeling but to beg you not to surrender to it.<\/p>\n

Despair is manifesting in a couple of ways (at least). Some are striking out blindly like a cornered animal. \u00a0Let us, instead, calculate our acts of resistance \u00a0to achieve the better outcome and make the necessary change we seek. Still impassioned, but result oriented or, as Michelle Obama said, ” When they go low, we go high.” \u00a0The other way despair manifests is in giving up. We cannot allow ourselves to believe that nothing we do will make a difference. This is the kind of despair I am hearing from so many.<\/p>\n

For those of us mired in despair: we cannot surrender to it<\/em>. If we do, \u00a0we are lost.
\nSo today I invite you to the difficult task of refusing to give into despair<\/em>. Challenge it by believing that each of our small acts make a difference. Challenge it by doing necessary and important menial work: get it involved with voter registration, become a poll worker, participate in texting, phone banking, \u00a0or letter writing campaigns urging people to register and vote.<\/p>\n

Whatever you do,\u00a0do something.<\/em>\u00a0We cannot let despair be what defeats us.<\/p>\n

Dear friends, \u00a0I promised to offer hope in the weeks leading up to this most important election.
\nToday, this is the hope I offer:
\nYou choosing to fight feelings of despair.
\nYou refusing to descend to the shadow side of resistance.
\nYou finding the small acts that make a difference.
\nYou committing to vote and making a plan.
\nYou standing shoulder to shoulder with all who seek justice.<\/p>\n

You.
\nYou are the hope.<\/p>\n

Blessings and peace,
\nConnie<\/p>\n

p.s. the song on a loop in my head today:
\nI will hold the Christ light for you
\nin the night time of your fear
\nI will hold my hand out to you
\nspeak the peace you long to hear:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Friends, Another week of living, breathing, grieving, working, and loving amidst a pandemic has passed and weeks of the same loom before us. In the midst of trying to navigate life with closed parameters, we witness more and more accounts of our fellow citizens being murdered and maimed, \u00a0white supremacists wielding weapons with the … Continue reading Dear Friends… Do Not Let Despair Defeat Us<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39,5,13,23,25,19,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1561"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1566,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561\/revisions\/1566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}