Just like “the Wednesday after” in 2016, I’m asking myself what kind of leader I want to be.

(I woke up with a full day of leading mastermind groups and meeting with clients 1-on-1, because I expected I would be basking in the afterglow of the United States having elected our first female president. Instead, I had the “When do I wake up from this nightmare” hangover that everyone living safely in a Blue Bubble had. So after crying again, I wrote “What kind of leader do I want to be?” on a sticky note and I posted it on my laptop. A constant reminder that an emotionally broken leader STILL has to lead. And I held space for everyone. And I’ll do that again in a few hours today.)

Somehow, today’s heaviness is HEAVIER, because now we know for sure that we live in a country that has enough people in it who WANT things to go this way that it’s not an accident. It’s not something for which “they’ll be sorry” for having empowered, once they SEE how bad it is. They know. AND they want that.

Of course, I have to assume they’ve never known anyone who [FILL IN THE BLANK] (and that blank is a population descriptor: trans, gay, faced with a pregnancy they needed to end, non-white, non-Christian, disabled, neurodivergent, chronically ill, came to this country with a dream, experiencing food insecurity, uninsurable, unemployable, overwhelmed by student loan debt or a drug possession prison sentence… and I’m just scraping the surface with this list, of course).

But then I know THEY HAVE TO KNOW people like this… and their self-centeredness over their own tax bracket or what their moral settings dictate others do with their own bodies is BIGGER than their empathy.

(I’m not addressing AT ALL those who are hate-driven. I don’t need to scratch my head about the lack of empathy in folks who LIVE for their lack of empathy. I’m talking about the presumably non-hate-driven voters whose votes were cast based off issues like the economy and their more conservative stance on health autonomy.)

That THIS is our country is shocking to me. It’s showing me that THIS is our Pluto return. And, yes, it frightens me re: what our upcoming woo weather is all about. The darker interpretation of much of what Rachel and I talked about on her show now comes into focus. (Click here or scroll down to watch my chat on The Rachel Lang Show about the United States’ Pluto return and the astrology of the 2024 presidential election.)

I know we’ll be okay. I know we have the choice to feel positive even as things are bleak. I want to make sure we all feel safe to feel our feelings — whatever they may be — as we come together in various configurations in the coming days.

I love you all. We are safe together and we have space to do what needs to be done.

Much love and courage,

Bonnie Gillespie is living her dreams by helping others figure out how to live theirs. Wanna work with Bon? Start here. Thanks!