16 Comments
User's avatar
Maggie's avatar

Thanks, Cameron. My response to Election Day has been an urge to create. Create… what, I’m not sure, but I write and sew and do art with my kids… somehow this is my lament in action? It feels propelled by the Holy Spirit within me, like this is the way I choose hope over despair. In this moment, at least.

Expand full comment
Cameron Bellm's avatar

Yes! I love that. Corita Kent said that making things is an act of hope, and I believe that wholeheartedly. We got our kids' school photos back this week, and honestly? Excellent timing. Their sweet faces shored up my spirit.

Expand full comment
Liz Cooledge Jenkins's avatar

Grateful for you. Thank you for writing us through this <3.

Expand full comment
Cameron Bellm's avatar

Thank you too! The feeling is very mutual!

Expand full comment
Nathan Davis Hunt's avatar

Thank you Cameron 💜

Expand full comment
Cameron Bellm's avatar

Thank you for your very human response!

Expand full comment
Maria Anderson's avatar

Blessings and peace to you, and thanks for this piece.

Expand full comment
Cameron Bellm's avatar

And to you too!

Expand full comment
Jerrilyn Novak's avatar

Thank you for this. I really like the way you pointed out that a capacity to appreciate beauty is important in saving the world too. Excellent point. And, yes, I have been writing a lot this week. I am, at least, grateful for that. Kyrie Eleison.

Expand full comment
Cameron Bellm's avatar

I am always so grateful for your writing! And yes, it's so important to keep our hearts from hardening. <3

Expand full comment
Molly Ryan's avatar

Thanks for this bit of uplift, Cameron. I would be interested in a group for the bereft if you do organize something. Grieving is so misunderstood and denied, and it may be one of the strongest reasons we are in such a mess as a country. Thanks for all your witness and writing.

Expand full comment
Cameron Bellm's avatar

Oh my goodness, yes, you're right! I will definitely keep you posted!

Expand full comment
Ellen's avatar

Dorothy Day is everything I pray to be. She never voted!

Expand full comment
Cameron Bellm's avatar

Dorothy is amazing, and I love her! But on this point I don't agree with her--I think she'd be okay with that!

Expand full comment
Kathy Lamont's avatar

I'd like to share the Blessings for Hope by Jan Richardson. I saw it on FB the morning after the election. BLESSING OF HOPE

So may we know

the hope

that is not just

for someday

but for this day—

here, now,

in this moment

that opens to us:

hope not made

of wishes

but of substance,

hope made of sinew

and muscle

and bone,

hope that has breath

and a beating heart,

hope that will not

keep quiet

and be polite,

hope that knows

how to holler

when it is called for,

hope that knows

how to sing

when there seems

little cause,

hope that raises us

from the dead—

not someday

but this day,

every day,

again and

again and

again.

—Jan Richardson, from The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief

Expand full comment
Cameron Bellm's avatar

Thank you for sharing! Jan Richardson is incredible, one of my all-time faves.

Expand full comment