Yesterday morning my i-phone blinked and then went into a deep coma, probably as a result of post election stress and social media exhaustion. It decided it was just done. Aren’t we all?

In a panic I raced it to the nearest Apple store where in the surgical hands of one of their geniuses, they saw no hope and I was given a replacement. The phone did not survive this election, but all of us did, and we will go on. In the meantime I felt so stranded, so disconnected, magnified only by how stranded and disconnected I had been feeling all week.

I wonder, all this electronic connectivity – is it really giving us a genuine feeling of connection and valuable information? Is it a healthy replacement for real relationship and conversation – discussions at dinner tables and over steaming cups of tea or coffee? Or does it just feed the surface where our superficial muscles move us through the world?

Leaving a yoga class later in the day I experienced such a sense of fullness – a feeling of strength and empowerment that felt born from deep inside my body; from in my bones, and the tissues that swaddle those bones, and the blood that feeds those tissues. Now is the time when our relationship to ourselves, our bodies and our communities matter more than ever. We need a real sense of belonging that is visceral not visual.

For anyone who has been doing the hard work to be healthier and stronger physically, more balanced and resilient emotionally – the time has come. The bell is ringing and this is not a drill – this is real. All the work we have been doing has been preparing us for this moment in history when we will all need to be stronger, more compassionate, more resilient, more faithful, braver and loving than ever before.

We need to start deep down in our bodies and our hearts and be present for ourselves and those close to us. We need to reach out and touch each other with a hand that is connected to a heart not a cell phone. We need to speak, and then we need to listen. We need to be heard, and then we need to listen again. This may not mean that we will agree, but we will respect. We will find some crack of light, no matter how small, where commonality breathes. If we don’t – we will become a part of the problem, not the solution.

If we can feel connected within ourselves, our community and our country; empowered, calm and confident in our bodies, then we can be more resilient when we can step in to any emotion. We can be more grounded when we step into any conversation, and more awake when we step into any situation. We may react, but we will learn to respond in a new way. We may get angry, but we will learn to channel the anger into action and speech that is efficient and productive. We may cry, but we will recognize those tears as confirmation that we can still be soft in our strength.

This is what it means to be a human being. This is what it means to be a warrior of light. This is what it means to rise.