What Carrying the Kazakhstan Flag Taught Me

The elections have caused me to retreat deeply into my cave.

I have been exhausted.

Sad…angry…defeated.

More naps have been taken by me than by my 21 year old cat Anika, and I have been wanting to check out from all of the hatred and bullshit on my Facebook feed, talk radio and online news. Thankfully I have no TV, so I am not getting mind numbed by the news, but there are still enough ways for it to infiltrate my little Reiki bubble at The Healing Woods.

The day after the election, I started a Facebook Group called Fierce Light Warriors, and added some like minded healers to it, so we can post about rallies, co-create healing spaces and just have a safe place to vent and focus on love and the kind of world we want to live in. Please feel free to add yourself on, if you are so called to. There will be an announcement coming up in there of a free healing that will be done around the country in the next couple weeks or so.

I work with people all over the globe within Reiki and Tarot, so I have had mothers in the South crying about fearing for their children’s lives, a gay man who just recently came out of the closet ready to crawl back in and women who have lived through sexual assault being triggered rightfully so by the decision of our fine nation.

It’s been tough…and because of that…I have been pretty low energy and silent.

I arrived at Santa Monica City Hall to live music, drumming and beautiful speakers including the leader of the Pasadena Black Lives Matter chapter and a mother of one of the MANY black men who have been shot by police in the past year.

There were Hari Krishnas chanting, dancing and singing, Native Americans drumming and someone was even saging anyone who wanted to be, and I allowed myself to be saged and quietly told the Universe, “This is it…my funk is over.”

Immediately my spirits were lifted, and I found my Pagan/Druid friends who I had plans to meet there and I felt the beautiful energy of like minded people meeting to raise the energy and march for the good that they believe in. It is quite intoxicating.

They had flags for every Nation present, and we were told to choose a flag to carry as we marched. My friend Elizabeth ran over to get some flags, and walked over with a handful…I chose a beautiful light blue one with a huge yellow Sun on it to represent my new dawning in life after this huge blow.

I proudly carried that flag through the streets of Santa Monica chanting for Human Rights, Black Lives Matter, Water is Life and more! I was crying while chanting and so proud to be a small part of a huge movement that is happening across the Nation.

Sanity and love are fighting back…in a big way.

We ended up on the boardwalk of Santa Monica and then down on the beach in front of a huge graveyard constructed to show all of the lives that have been lost in battle…as well as how many Vets have committed suicide.

I walked away from the group for a moment to snap this photo, and I noticed a woman staring at me struggling with my flag as I took this photo. She was pretty far away…but I felt her stare and her energy.

She watched me as I walked back into the group and a couple minutes later she was right behind me tapping me on my shoulder.

With tears in her eyes, she said, “You have my country’s flag!”

I smiled and said, “How beautiful…which Country is this? I picked it because of how beautiful the flag is and how the Sun meant a lot to me.”

“Kazakhstan” she said as she gingerly took the fabric of the flag into her hands and kissed it.

I had tears in my eyes, and I said, “That is so beautiful…I am so proud to be marching for you.”

“Thank you…I love it there and miss my family so much. Thank you for reminding me of them.”

This interaction had me thinking.

If I were out in another country and saw someone with an American flag, I would probably walk the other way, instead of running towards them and kissing it, as this beautiful woman on the beach did for her country’s flag.

The American flag has been tarnished, shit upon and an embarrassment in my eyes since this past election and how certain members of our society have been acting out with hate crimes and assaults.

I then also thought that it does not have to be this way, and groups like the one I am in marching are fighting not the president elect…not the fact that their candidate lost and not for red versus blue us versus them.

We are marching to show people that common decency is alive and well and PISSED in this country, and we will fight to make the USA a place ALL people can be proud of…not just the ones with a racist, misogynistic or hate filled agenda.

I don’t claim to know the answers as to what needs to be done with this country to make it sane again…but I do know WHY these changes need to happen.

1. So all people can prosper.

2. So all people can love.

3. So all people can live in peace without fear.

4. So all people can learn.

5. So all people can have healthcare.

6. So the country can rebuild itself.

7. So the human race will continue to inhabit this planet, because the more we fuck with her…the more she will fuck back until she shakes us off like dog shaking off a flea.

I am proud to be but a drop within the ocean of change which is ebbing and flowing us to be a better society.

May the waves of our movement crash into the rocks of their resistance…water is life.