By Jean Tinder

The Unknown.

As I write this, it is election day in the United States. Of course by the time you read this, the election will be over and a new era will have begun. What kind of new era will it be? There are those who fear the victory of either candidate. I have heard from family members and friends about how they believe the presidency of either McCain or Obama would spell the end of liberty and start us on the downward spiral toward Armageddon. Who is right? Will one of them bring the world to its knees and the other save us all? And if so, which one?

Of course, as Shaumbra we know it doesn’t really matter who wins this election. We know that the world is changing and nothing can stop it now. We know that humanity – as well as each individual – can choose the hard way or the easy way to wake up. But we also know that even with the Easy Button right under our fingertips waking up is the biggest challenge we’ve ever faced.

Can you imagine what it will be like in the coming weeks as people watch for their worst fears to play out? Will Obama turn the country into a socialist state? Will McCain alienate the rest of the world? Will the one who takes office be the final straw to push an ailing economy into collapse? Will all the other frightening scenarios that we’ve heard about come true?

As these fears torment millions of people, where can they possibly find hope? That’s where you come in, Shaumbra. Perhaps in the wee hours of some dark night when their mind is racing and their heart is heavy, a little bubble of New Energy potential will float through their awareness. Perhaps they will take a breath as a glimmer of hope enters their heart. Perhaps the echo of your own dark night – facing your deepest fears, struggling through your own economic collapse, searching for your own inner freedom – will whisper through their soul and they will feel the courage you dredged up from somewhere deep inside. Perhaps they will feel the New Energy that you invited in to your life.

Dear Shaumbra, this is the time you came for. Not a few years into the future, not when you finally “get it together,” not when everything is finally perfect in your life. Your time is NOW. All those challenges you have faced over the last many years have become the seeds of change for the rest of humanity. It doesn’t matter how you solved them, it doesn’t even matter if you’re still facing some of them. What matters is the divinity you brought to each experience, the trust you chose in yourself, the courage that keeps you going. Because of you, those are the things that others can tap into now when their hope is waning.

If I could tell every Shaumbra just one thing, it is that you make a difference just by being here and living your life. Whether that life of yours is big or small, hard or easy, painful or joyful, successful or dismal, the consciousness with which you live on earth makes a difference – now more than ever. The simple Presence that you bring to your existence radiates out to millions of others who can now choose an easier time and a new world because of you.

In a way it doesn’t really matter who wins this election. The future is unwritten and unknown. But you have already faced the Unknown in your life, looked it in the eyes and said “Yes” anyway. And it is that Yes that humanity needs to feel now.

…when the darkest cloud covers your heart and there’s no reason you can find to go on, you still say “Yes.”

…when the news tells you of another disaster happening somewhere, you hold the participants in your heart with compassion – and gently breathe “Yes” for their changes.

…when yet another friend turns away in rejection, shaking their head at your strange beliefs and walking away into another world, you bless their soul’s journey and remember the time before your own No became Yes.

…when you see fear in a stranger’s eyes and you feel them wondering if things will be okay, you just smile a gentle “Yes” right into their heart.

…when someone cries that the wrong man won, wringing their hands in despair at the world coming to an end, you say “Yes – and a new one is beginning.”

…when your own world appears to be disintegrating before your eyes and the Unknown is lurking just around the corner, simply whisper “Yes, I can fly now.”

…and when you feel the fear of a billion humans closing in around you, take that precious breath for yourself and with every beat of your Shaumbra heart let the universe hear your YES.

Yes to life; Yes to trust; Yes to hope; Yes to compassion; Yes to a whole new world.