I happen to be living in a time when now I know what deep fear feels like. It is possible that 2024 could be our last election … if a want-to-be dictator takes over the White House and disassembles the structure of governing I’ve known all my life.

I’ve never been on the receiving end of personal, political violence. As a white, educated, middle-class woman, I slide around alot of chaos without being noticed. Though I never take that for granted.

I happen to be trying not to imagine the worst: “Picture what I want, not what I don’t want.” Our mind is the most powerful pharmacy we have. My self-talk is to get off the optimism/pessimism treadmill. It goes round and round and takes me nowhere … it tells me nothing about what is possible.

Optimism and pessimism are spectator sports and distract me from co-creating what is possible. They are passive “hopes” and “dreads.”

The news tells us what to be afraid of. It’s up to me to decide what is possible. My mind, ritual, prayer and action no longer have the luxury of procrastinating.

Wendi Weinberg

Pelham