I feel deep sadness at the loss of yet another leader who fought the good fight for equality. A person who exemplified leadership, compassion and truth.

We are all equal in the eyes of the divine, yet we strive, fight and die to live out that spiritual truth in our daily lives.

Some believe rhetoric that has been deeply rooted in them and in human history that division is a birth right based on race, sex, who someone loves or how someone identifies.

What I know to be true, based on my spiritual studies and what I have overcome in my life is the importance of holding the image of the just world you long for and make daily efforts towards it. Lead from a place of love and integrity.

We always wait for a leader, but overlook the fact that we each have the ability to lead and influence the people in our lives. We each have the ability to change our neighborhood and our communities.

This year has been hard. It has challenged us as a nation and as individuals. Darkness can be many things. People of see darkness as evil and it can be. Darkness can also be our shadow aka what we surprises within ourselves like our emotions, personal history or even our true self. Darkness can also simply be a part of us that is unconscious or a part of ourselves that is unrealized or a part of us that simply needs to be nurtured to grow.

When it comes to darkness all you ever need is light to eliminate it. Often, people wait for a light to come, overlooking the fact that have the power to be a light for themselves and for others. If we all flipped on our lights, or let our light shine brighter, the world would shift.

This year is like wind to a tree’s trunk, strengthening us to be strong and ground. The year is asking us to reassess our values as a individuals, as a nation and as a world and recommit to what is important to us.

If we do not learn this lesson, we are calling into our future more struggle and challenge, because challenges continue until the learn is learned and passed down to the next generation. History repeats itself because the lesson hasn’t been learned.

When we were tribal people the elders shared folk stories that were passed down from generation to generation. These stories taught lessons, values and ways of being. Other oral stories are of the leaders within a community who did great deeds to build up the community, bring the community together or make like a bit easier for the community. There are still cultures that honor this tradition.

What stories will be told of our generation? Will they be of us giving in and sitting idle? Or be about our commit to a cause greater than ourselves and a vision of the world that works together to make it cleaner, safer, just and filled with love and teamwork.

The only way is both work through the struggle to up from from the mud and darkness. May we choose this course.