Cristen Rodgers's Blog

It’s a balancing act.

Maintaining your peace while fighting fiercely for others’.

Holding righteous anger in one hand and universal compassion in the other.

Recognizing and standing up to an assault on freedom while understanding that it can never be given or taken away.

Creating the world you want while honestly witnessing the world as it is.

Telling the truth of what’s happening without spreading fear.

It’s a balancing act.

The kind that requires true balance within.

The kind of balance that comes from knowing your own light and shadow.

The kind that comes from integration rather than separation.

The kind that comes from being whole without denying that one self, one community, one country are only parts.

The kind that requires a daily effort to be hope without turning a blind eye to pain.

Whether you are struggling with this balance or you’re becoming an expert tightrope walker – you are enough.

You are needed and appreciated and worthy of love.

Your efforts matter. Your hope is contagious.

Your conscientiousness is a gift, even when it feels like a curse.

Your gifts, your kindnesses, your art, your voice, your daily choices make a difference.

Keep shining.

We’re all in this together.

Cristen Writes

Watching the military meeting hosted by Trump and Hegseth was difficult.

More so even than usual, it felt like forcing myself to pay attention as someone was raking their fingernails across the chalkboard or sliding a table across a squeaky floor.

The urge to turn it off was strong; but the moment felt pivotal, so I resisted that urge and continued to listen anyway.

The shortest possible explanation of something that was anything but concise is that the entire thing was pure theatre.

But this wasn’t the kind of theatre that business leaders, or politicians, or teachers will sometimes use to increase morale and bring people together.

This was dark theatre.

While the rhetoric was as thick as ever, the pretense was not.

Through the President’s rambles along the murky corridors of his mind, the one thing that came across loud and clear is that the enemy is within.

And in the more cohesive but still disturbing speech that Hegseth gave, the one clear message was that the military’s purpose is to destroy our enemies.

Taken together, the tone was reminiscent of that scene in just about every fantasy novel where the antagonist drops any remaining pretense and draws a line in the sand.

I haven’t written about American politics directly in the past, in large part because it’s nearly impossible to keep it short and simple.

When a single speech contains more fallacies than a critical thinking exam book, and a single paragraph reads like Orwell, it’s hard to know where to focus.

And, as many have already figured out, that’s not accidental.

Nonetheless, despite an overwhelming number of concerning topics that should be addressed, I want to write about one that’s so buried beneath the rubble it feels intentional – philosophy.

It’s no wonder that philosophy is right up there with empathy on their list of things considered useless. Because philosophy is the “why” behind what we do. And when we lose that “why”, then “what” we do can be pushed so far out of the realm of morality that turning back is like doing a u-turn in a cruise ship.

Over and over again, the message from those at the top of this administration has been that we are throwing away the guardrails.

In Hegseth’s speech, for instance, those guardrails were defined not only as political correctness but also just basic correctness.

Let me explain.

The difference between a leader and a bully isn’t strength. It isn’t presence or how formidable they are. The difference is purpose.

The leader doesn’t agitate. They don’t go on the offensive. Their purpose is not control. And it’s certainly not aggression.

As time marches on, and more guardrails are thrown out, the line between strength as a means of protection and strength as a means of aggression is blurring nearly to extinction.

The line between leader and bully has been erased.

And this has been made possible by burying the philosophy.

Take an initial accepted philosophical stance – like the one that led to the renaming of the Department of War as the Department of Defense.

The philosophy was sound and something that everyone could get behind – we do not seek to create war but to prevent it and, in the case of an outbreak, to defend against it.

By completely ending true discourse, that philosophy was easily buried, and all of the moral obligations and restrictions that were tied to it are now dismantled.

Now, if we no longer accept that premise but have not yet defined a new one, there are no parameters for future acts.

This was intentional.

From the very beginning, Trump and those at his side have worked hard to at first limit and now completely shut down the type of discourse that would allow for any discussion of philosophy.

Even further, they have made the word philosophy itself a joke.

Any time that a question is asked by a reporter that requires something more than a parroted lie or a blanket statement, it is shut down, criticized, mocked, and attacked.

Because to define the philosophy would establish parameters. And bullies hate parameters, guardrails, and discourse.

So many are talking about how to fight back.

How to stop this wrecking ball before it swings any further.

And there are many good and moral answers out there.

But I’d like to offer one more.

Get off the internet.

Talk to your neighbors.

Be strategic and find a way to engage in a deeper conversation without triggering their defense mechanisms.

Find ways to dig into the philosophy. Talk about the “why”.

It doesn’t need to be political, because politics is just the result of philosophy, not the other way around.

The people who need to read something like this will not. They won’t make it past the third line.

The people who need to hear philosophy will not do so willingly. And that is where the opportunity lies. How do we connect on topics of morality and philosophy when both are being actively buried by those in power?

The answer won’t be found online. It will be found in connection. In real world displays of leadership – service, community, empathy, kindness, and genuine conversations.

At this point, I have probably taken as many topic turns as Trump does when asked about healthcare – but I hope that at least my overall message is clear.

The guardrails are gone and without them we risk becoming an earth-sized wrecking ball. We need to re-establish our philosophy – and that can only happen at ground level.

So put away the phone and start talking.

Cristen Writes

I’d rather be writing poetry.

I’d rather be stringing together far too many flowery adjectives in the hope that I could capture just a slice of the beauty that I see every day.

I’d rather be writing for fun.

But now is not the time.

It is not the time for adjectives.

Now is the time for verbs.

Verbs like feeling, facing, grounding, centering, forgiving, loving, and fighting.

Now is the time for nouns like courage, strength, and resilience.

And so here I am, inking love on paper as I always have aspired to do, but in a more direct kind of way.

Because the time for subtleties has passed.

And speaking love directly sounds a bit like this:

Make time to feel.

Every single day.

Face the anger. The pain. The fear.

Look them in the eye until they each yield. Stay with them until you find stillness again.

Remember that the world is made up of all the same stuff it always has been.

It’s just organized in a different way.

So love it as fiercely as you ever have.

Remember that your neighbors are not the echoes in this digital matrix. They are flesh and blood, beating hearts who are looking for love and connection and wanting to be seen and heard.

Be the change.

Feel your feet on the earth. Hear the birds singing. Hold the door. Let someone in at the traffic jam. Offer that hug. Give that gift.

Be honest. Be aware. But be steady and remember that the only real battle is the one we each must face within ourselves, and you cannot fight someone else’s shadow.

But you can be a light.

Great change doesn’t necessarily require great acts. Sometimes the biggest thing we can do is be consistent. Stable. Resilient. Committed.

Sometimes the light might feel like the flicker of a single candle in the dead of night.

But one candle can light a thousand.

I love you.

~ Cristen Writes

I can’t control the weather.

But I can plant a garden.

I can’t stop men from fighting wars.

But I can create peace at home.

I can’t protect children worlds away.

But I can touch the heart of someone in mine.

I can’t prevent group think,

or categorization,

or the drafting of war plans.

But I can think critically,

and practice compassion,

and introspection in my own life.

I can’t change anyone else’s heart.

But I can love across borders with my own.

I can’t erase the lines others draw in the sand.

But I can raise my voice above them.

I can’t change the world.

Or maybe I can…

at least a little.

©️2025 Cristen Writes

At this point, anyone in the States who is still in denial about this budding authoritarian is either willfully blind or completely brainwashed.

I say this not with judgment but with sadness.

I genuinely mourn for the great mental and emotional anguish they will likely have to face when it all hits home.

And I mourn for those who are already being hurt by whats happening.

As for me, I will continue to practice compassion and work hard to maintain a loving presence for those who need a soft place to land when they awaken.

I will hold loving space – in the hopes that our collective future will be a more understanding, unifying, and loving place for everyone; and that this proves to be a short-lived lesson that will guide us to that place.

What I will not do is stay quiet or be any kind of anchor for more of the same.

The people who “agitated” the status quo with their “wokeness” were warning of exactly this. They were trying to point out that there was still an undercurrent that needed to be addressed.

What is happening now is just that undercurrent rising to the surface.

So although I will be a safe place to land, I will not water down the truth or perpetuate denials to make anyone comfortable.

Love is love. But love is not always gentle.

~ Cristen Writes

Is it anger? Not really.

It’s more like a volcano ready to erupt in my chest – the lava barely contained, spilling over, driven upward with enough energy to burn a hole through everything.

Pain?

That word doesn’t scratch the surface of the layers upon layers of ash falling like dark rain upon the grounds that once rang with the songs of free speech and glittered with a thousand art murals now kept only in memory.

250 years of freedom.

Not quite, but close. The confetti hasn’t even been thrown and we are faced with the fragility of this shared hope, this hard won dream we were set to celebrate.

Will these words relieve the anguish? At least for tonight? Tonight, as the smoldering ruins of another amendment are still hot.

It’s too early to tell.

But it’s too early to tell many things.

Like how far our once-respected institutions will bend. For fear, it turns out, is a powerful motivator.

Or how long until the sand completely erodes and all those buried heads must look. Because denial, it turns out, is a fickle friend.

Or whether there will still be time once they do. Because time, as we all know, marches on without a care.

Forgiveness and compassion? My lifeline and guide – at present nowhere to be found.

Perhaps they will return in the morning after a cup of black coffee and the understanding that life must go on.

My heart must go on.

Forgiveness?

Yes, tomorrow.

Tomorrow I must rise to another day. Tomorrow I will forgive. I will love. I will look to the sun. I will pray for rain.

But tonight? Tonight I am fire.

©️2025 Cristen Writes

As for me and my little life, I’m going to keep trying my best.

Trying my best to stay open and humble, yet fierce and honest in my truth.

Doing my best to be myself.

To embrace my perfect concoction of “a little bit of both”.

Respectful of the rules that matter and a pain-in-the-ass rebel against those that cause unnecessary pain.

I’ll keep doing my best to take the middle road, no matter how hard that road may be to travel.

Because I know that polarities by their nature are not the problem.

They are the necessary ingredients to life.

Water and fire.

Day and night.

Birth and death.

Joy and sadness.

Hot and cold.

And yes, even left and right.

It is not wrong to have and hold opposites.

It is not dangerous to understand and respect both.

It is empowering and magical to stand witness to two extremes, to hold both potentials within you, and to birth something beautiful from their balance.

What’s dangerous is to treat them as enemies when their true purpose is to be cooperative, counter-balancing friends.

It is dangerous to deny when one has become too heavily weighted, or to hide your head in the sand when one extreme seeks to eradicate all outside its sphere.

But there is a simple, quiet, and beautiful kind of magic in remembering the good in both, even in times of imbalance.

So here in my little world I will make that simple magic by continuing to do my best.

I’ll continue doing my best to balance my water and fire.

To have a healthy relationship between my heart and my mind.

I’ll go on balancing my responsibility to the collective with my honoring and nurturing of self.

I will balance the humility enough to stay quiet with the full power of speaking up.

And I will, day by day, do my best to ground myself in this beautiful earth while also opening my wings and my mind to the sky.

I’ll keep seeing and understanding the need for both. And I will continue doing my best to balance my responsibility to call out the bullshit with my blessed, sovereign right to retreat into sacred stillness and personal peace.

I can only control me, so I will focus on balancing my own extremes, my own opposites, and speaking my own truths along the way.

As for me and my little life, I’ll just keep on trying my best. Because maybe that’s all any of us can ever do.

©️ 2025 Cristen Writes

America. Don’t you dare lose your humanity.

I don’t care who you are. I don’t care what party you support.

Don’t lose your humanity.

Don’t forget what it’s all about.

Whoever you are. Whatever you believe.

The point of it all has always been love. It has always been about love and fear.

Love and fear.

It was love, or a desire for love, that led you to care so much in the first place.

Love is the original cause.

Do not let what’s happening now – however you choose to interpret it – do not let it corrupt that original cause.

If you stay loyal to anything, stay loyal to that. That is our salvation. That is your salvation.

It’s not a person. It’s not a party. Its not an idea or ideal. It’s not a religion. It’s not a group. It’s not a flag or a border. And it is not a fear.

It’s love. Or a longing for love.

Love your neighbors. Love yourself.

That was always the point.

And right now it might be easy to forget that original point, but you fight like hell to keep it in clear sight.

Do not give it up.

No matter how many beliefs and ideas and fears and hopes you have attached to it over time, no matter how hard it can be to keep focus when it seems a new fire starts every day, the original purpose behind anything is love and that must remain the point.

The focus.

The reason.

The path.

The map.

The destination.

And the stamina.

Don’t you dare lose your humanity.

I don’t care which side you are on. If there is even a brief moment in time where you villainize an entire group of people – that is your sign.

If there is ever a moment where it feels like violence is the answer – that is your sign.

If there is ever a moment where you think the answer is force and control – that is your sign.

That is your sign that it’s time to step back and remember the purpose.

The purpose behind having any ideas at all.

What was that purpose?

Do you remember what led you to ever care?

Do you remember what led you to ever pay attention?

Do you remember what led you to pick a side?

Go back to the start.

I don’t care who you are – in some way and at some point it was love.

The desire to give love. Or to receive love. Or to protect love.

Fear has been a motivator for many – but even that is just a call for love.

And if it was fear, ask yourself these important questions.

If it was fear of some perceived threat against your country or your family or your ideas, ask yourself.

Where were you calling for love?

Where was your family or neighborhood calling for love?

Find that originator.

It was never going to be answered with anger. Anger cannot bring love.

It was never going to be answered with judgments, generalizations, divisions. Those things cannot bring love.

The call can only be answered by you.

The call for love can only be answered by you and God.

Go back to the start.

Go back and answer that call for love.

We each have a decision to make. It is within each of us. You have the choice. You hold the key.

Do not let this darkness spread. Do not let it steal and corrupt your purpose.

Do not let the algorithms and false prophets fool you into thinking the people can be divided into clear categories. Do not let the creeping shadows convince you that your neighbors are enemies.

Fear shuts down. Gives up. It doesn’t listen. It assumes and attacks. Fear generalizes and judges.

Love communicates. And it listens.

Love seeks to understand. It looks for commonalities. It seeks to build rather than destroy.

Love speaks.

Fear fires.

We are not here to be at war with one another. We are one people. We are one earth. One heart. Deeply connected all the way down to the roots of the trees and the water from the skies.

Stand up to the true darkness and shed light upon it. It was never a person or group or party. The true darkness does not care who you support. It does not live on one side of the aisle. It doesn’t go after one group of people.

The true darkness is a slow loss of empathy. A steady drain of patience to listen and speak. A draining of life force in anger and fear and chaos.

It is the loss of our humanity.

The true darkness doesn’t discriminate.

But neither does the light.

Neither does love.

America. Don’t you dare lose your humanity.

©️2025 Cristen Writes

We don’t conform.

We don’t obey.

We won’t fall into line.

You can’t predict

our next move

with your digital mind.

There are more of us,

waking and rising,

with each passing day.

We’re organic magic.

You can’t shake us.

We aren’t going away.

The human heart –

she is wild and fierce,

a storm to your flame.

The table has been flipped.

Your pawns are all shook.

We won’t play the game.

©️2025 Cristen Writes

We will not quiet down.

We won’t hide.

We won’t beg, grovel, cower, or bargain.

We won’t obey.

We will not bow.

We will fight in ways that are foreign to you. In ways that you can’t foresee, comprehend, or stop.

We are free. We will remain free. And we will fight to make sure that all are free.

We will go on loving one another, loving ourselves, loving people of different colors and languages and beliefs and cultures. We will go on loving this earth.

We will plant trees and thank the stars and hug our friends and dance in the streets. And you will cower behind your walls as you slowly shrivel away.

We will continue to raise our vibrations and change the tide. We will keep on thwarting your every move. And we will still be wiping the sleep out of more and more sets of eyes as we go – eyes that will further reveal and diminish you.

We are more. We are stronger. We are wiser. We are whole and sovereign beings, and you and your minions are but children playing with plastic toy soldiers afraid of love, afraid of us, afraid of your own shadows.

You will not win.

We will not bow.

We aren’t going away.

©️ 2025 Cristen Writes