One More from Chicago

Another morning with a cup of tea, looking out on this peaceful street in Chicago.The street is tree lined and a few brown leaves have fallen. Most of the trees are still green. There's a green mail holding box on the corner. Sunshine breaks through the clouds, blue skies dance with big puffy while clouds. There are some houses and some small apartment buildings. In spite of the morning chill, I've got the window open and fresh air gently moves white sheer curtains.

It's a quiet morning, low key and slow. My flight is at 2:15, so we don't have to leave until 10:30. That's about 40 minutes from now. A Heather Cox Richardson podcast plays in the background, and her analysis of power and the Posse Commitatus Act offer a counter point to the peace of the morning. 

I take another sip of tea as she talks about something that happened here on Saturday morning. Bodycam images tell a different story than the official line. What we are becoming makes me sad. Her calm as she discusses all this is reassuring.

"What I would urge you to do is stay nonviolent," Heather says. "And record and post everything."

She calls this our superpower. Our abiity to show what is really happening. She talks about power "sloshing around" in the absence of the Congress exercising its power and the concentration of power in unelected administration officials. She encourages citizens to take up our own power . . . the power of voice.

"Really, you must remember, we are on a knife edge," she says. 

It's easier to think about this as I sit with the peace of the morning in a city that defies what is being said about it from outside. Those who would seize and abuse power seem content to demonize not just whole groups of people but also whole cities. Half the population is being demonized also, those who disagree with the opposing political party. What's going to happen when the administration believes the polls that say that 85% of the population disagrees with what they're doing?

Big questions season my small moments these days. A little kid skipping across the street in front of his mother and branches moving with the breeze on a tree lined street remind me that all is not lost, that we still have space to conserve what remains important to us. A new conservatism could be the thing that saves our way of life. It's not lost on me that such a statement coming from someone else would terrify me. 

I thought I would be reflecting on last night's birthday dinner this morning. I am, in a way, as I think about what I want for myself in the coming year, for my children, for my community. I close my eyes and send out my intention, a differnt kind of birthday wish, but largely the same as what I wished for when I blew out the candle on that decadent chocolate olive oil cake. I took a single bite. It was enough.    

Fall-ing In Love: 40 Days of Noticing is a daily writing practice that opens a landscape of discovery into my own human experience.

Katherine Cartwright has been blogging since 2012, and each year brings new wonders. She asks big questions of the small things in life.