The upcoming election in the United States has the world watching with anticipation. It marks a defining and critical moment in our history that will shape the future globally.

It’s not easy to watch or take in. As an HSP (highly sensitive person) and an intuitive channel, there are days when I cannot turn on the news because my senses and emotions are too overwhelmed. I almost have to recover before I can digest more. But even during those times, I am praying and allowing the tears to flow as I grieve the distress our country is in, and the damage being done.

For me, it’s not about taking sides anymore. It’s about our values and commitment to fight for, and do the work democracy requires. It’s about making sure we don’t give away the freedoms and rights we cannot afford to take for granted, and recognizing the sacred privilege of voting that democracy offers. We are the role model for the world at a most precarious time, and the outcome of this election will have monumental consequences.

Living in California, if you are pro-Harris/Walz, it can feel like your vote won’t matter because our state predictably and heavily votes democratic. Based on the electoral system, if you’re not in one of the swing states, you may also feel your vote isn’t needed. But every voice of vote matters, everywhere!

It can feel like our choice will be swallowed whole when billionaires, corporations, and countries are using their power to determine the fate of America. That only makes it more critical for every American to participate. The collective power in how we vote is still recognized as the rule of law. For now.

It can be very difficult to stand up and follow through when we have been, and are, going through so much. Wars are raging, our jobs and lives are demanding, we’re suffering a loss, we don’t want to get involved with politics, we’re numb, we don’t care, and we may even be fighting to survive.

Whatever your situation, I hope you take a moment to realize how important and needed you are. We cannot create the future we want without using the sacred privilege of our vote, and we cannot maintain our democracy without participating in it.

On another level, if we ever doubted our words can change the world, the evidence could not be clearer now. The words we speak and write have impact and consequences, whether spoken to one person, a country, or the world. Grievance and blame are the easiest and laziest forms of expression. They keep us from rising above.

Expressions of universal wisdom, compassion, empathy, unity, and the truth of our oneness, require a higher mind, a higher consciousness. They lead us home to our true capacity to love, and light the path for a future that lifts the world and everyone in it. Our votes determine our leaders, and those leaders will take us one way or the other.

My favorite line in The Course in Miracles, is “You can have a grievance or you can have a miracle, but you can’t have both.”

I vote for miracles.