From the beginning of your political career, you have had to also deal with life-shattering personal tragedy.

Not once, but twice. First, when you lost your wife and daughter to a horrendous car crash just as you won your first Senate seat and then to lose your son Beau while in office as Vice President.

Throughout your campaign, your empathy is what has resonated with the American people. They saw something special in you — a warm, confident dignity.

You didn’t put anyone down, make fun of anyone, or grab anyone by a part of their body. …

I grew up with Mister Rogers. Every day after school, he could be found on the public television station. Watching Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was like being in a safe, happy place. His “world” was fun to escape to for thirty minutes each day. He talked about feelings. How to express them — through his rich characters and the stories he created for them and the discussions. He created a safe space before anyone even knew what that was.

And the visits he brought the viewers on were always so fun — and unexpected. He literally brought us on field trips…

YYou have more power than you think.

Every time you feel a wave of frustration coming over you during the impeachment trial because of the possibility that the Senate won’t convict. Think about the large companies you do business with and let your fingers go.

Call your bank. Call the financial institution that holds your 401k (I was shocked that mine supported the GOP so heavily! I am moving my money.) Call your cell phone provider. Call your internet service provider. Think about the companies that touch you every day. Call them. Ask them.

Another way to know is to…

Writing

Writing “downloads.” Authors speak about them frequently. It’s the phenomenon of having content “download” into your mind almost effortlessly as you write. Other writers refer to “being in the flow” or a flow state. However, to me — downloads are very different from being in a flow state. I can have one or both at the same time. It depends on what’s going on.

The best description of an energetic information “download” comes from author Melanie Beckler in her article Spiritual Energy Downloads — What Are They And How Can You Access Them!?

When a download happens, it’s like receiving…

Politics

Talk about an identity crisis.

Is the party of Lincoln and Reagan and Bush about to become the party of Trump, QAnon, and Marjorie Taylor Greene? Oh my.

What hunger for power can do.

Can the GOP correct the course?

Do Republican Senators side with Donald Trump’s mobster power and the conspiracy-theorizing, white supremacist, Holocaust-denying extremists?

Or, do they put on their grown-up pants and finally tell Trump-the criminal to get lost in Mar-A-Lago and vote to convict him? Like what more than half (about 57%) of Americans feel that they should do.

Have they not forgotten they were nearly killed along with Mike Pence in…

If you see this article, you are one of the average twenty-five views that Medium has chosen to distribute each of my articles. If you read it, then you’ve made a difference because you make up a considerable percentage of my audience. Please do not misconstrue what I am saying as begging for claps or anything of the sort. I am merely pointing out facts.

My readers are a small group.

Seriously. You are one of the rare people that Medium has chosen to share my writing with, and I have nearly 1K followers. Just look at the image below.

As a writer, I am shocked…

Writing

Show up.

If you don’t love it, don’t do it. Why?

Because no one will want to read your writing because it will be instantly transparent that you’re not in it for the right reasons, then your results will suck. Then you will keep writing to improve — but your head still won’t be there, with an endless cycle of churning emotionless content with no feeling. People know when you are a content robot.

Have you ever been read to by a robot, versus a human? Same thing with your writing. If you are missing emotion, you are missing a voice. Any…

You are more likely to die on your birthday. My husband did — and in the same hospital, he was born.

My husband always hated his birthday. I thought it was so strange. Most of us love our birthdays. We get presents, attention — not my husband. He wanted the day over with as quickly as possible. He died on his 57th in the same hospital he was born in.

I still marvel at the indisputable fact. And it wasn’t what my husband planned. He worked away his entire life for a retirement he never got to see.

There’s a lot to unpack here.

Did he inherently know that one of his birthdays would also be his last on this earth…