I can’t. I won’t. It’s not possible. I don’t know how to. It doesn’t work.

Resistance. It’s a dragon. A monster. A fear-baiter. And sometimes an ally.

Resistance stops the haters from feeling the love in their hearts. Says I’d rather hate you than feel my own pain. Call me a racist. I don’t care. I will stay safe.  I’d rather crush you than risk being crushed by my own fear.

Resistance stops the lovers from loving themselves. The practice of receiving the love they deprive themselves of or project onto another.

Lover or hater, resistance is the Great Wall between you and you.

It splits you off from yourself, our best self, strong enough to embrace vulnerability and reject shame.

From the first day of our ego development, the Great Wall gets built, brick by brick. It begins with “behave yourself” and “be good” and eventually becomes “get a job and be successful.”

To protect ourselves, we fortify the wall. Armed with shame and self- criticism. We learn to beat ourselves up, so others cannot. A sideways way of keeping our self safe.

Yes, it makes no sense. It’s twisted. Paradoxical. But it’s deep within. Unconscious. A cozy cushion that is at once a medieval spiked bed.

It is a self-oppression, an inner critic, manifested in negative self-talk or outward cruelty. Rarely do we see it.

But once we identify it, we may face it. Turn towards it. Clear that we will no longer tolerate this rot in our inner system.

And so we observe it.  Feel the pain. Question old scripts. Confront wounds. And the Great Wall begins to crumble. Even while the outer world demands the Wall stay in tact. Tells us to take sides. Says, you’re either with us or against us. Heaven or hell. Good or bad. Light or dark.

False dualisms, cloaked as conservative patriotism or new age liberalism, demand you split yourself in two. The good you and the bad you. The you living in the light and the dark. All of this creates an inner confusion. Reinforces the Great Wall within. A midterm election of the soul.

No one will profit if you love the enemy. How will we win? How will we take back our country?

You may keep your sword within hand’s reach. But you must see the mechanisms at work, that keep you divided from yourself and others.

Loosen the glue. Separate self-talk from authentic emotions.  See self-judgements from truths. Un-cement the concrete that keeps you stuck.

Take back the love you project onto another. Flip the hate you elevate. Give love to the enemy within. Bring peace to the arguments in your soul.

Everyday, engage in a conversation between you and you.

Fear, what are you trying to teach me?
Anger, what do you want from me?
Shame, how can you be on my team?

And from there, watch the current of love unkink and flow. Towards self, towards others, and yes, even towards the enemy.

My heart hurts so much from your hate that I feel your love. And as I love, I carry my sword and shield, using them judiciously as needed.

Resistance loosens its grip, and the old story that says, nothing matters, I’m fucked, the system is rigged, no longer keeps us off the field. Instead, we step out, unattached to outcomes. Arriving at the North Star no longer the goal, only moving towards its glow every day.

Stay on the path.

Chop wood, carry water, vote, mobilize, make money, give without care of profit, show up with purpose, and take conscious rest. Live with mission, within and out.

This is the Great Doing and Being. Where the Sovereign meets the Warrior. This is where you are free, out beyond the field of right and wrong, past the Great Wall of Resistance that no longer divides you.

And then can you do the hardest of all practices – the practice of loving yourself.