Election Day!

A glorious day!

Voting Day!

I had tears in my eyes all day.

I just couldn't stop thinking

about a time where certain people

weren't given the opportunity to vote.

 

I can't imagine ever living in that time and not fighting with all my power to give ALL PEOPLE the same rights and opportunities.

 

I tried to empathize with a different time and place, where only allowing certain people the right to vote would seem like the right thing to do.

 

And I couldn't. 

 

I could not see a time where I would ever

think its OK to live in fear, instead of love,

a time where I would ever

want to exclude instead of include,

a time where

certain humans didn't count as whole humans.

 

I can't. 

At all.

 

I had an excited anticipation for this day.

I also held a grateful, yet heavy heart, for the days before my time and

for the people that fought for my right.

 

And not just my right, also for the right of my fiery first born that stands so true to her beliefs and is inquisitive and intuitive about civil rights far beyond my comprehension at the age of 7.

 

So I waited until I could pick her up from school and hand in hand we went to our precinct.

We talked about our shared belief that everyone should have the right to vote,

and those that can should. 

We talked about how our vote,

(and more importantly),

our voices matter.

We have a duty to share our voice, no matter which side of the party lines we stand on.

As I looked around at the community folks around us,

I  got choked up.

Seeing us all there,

knowing if we were voting

 the same or different,

didn't matter in that moment.

We all shared kindness in our brief interactions and we all stood proud.

It felt like we were all one.

There was a man that saw our excitement and offered to take our picture.

What a treasured memory!

Lily was bummed to go to bed that night without knowing the outcome.

I promised to record the speeches and let her know first thing in the morning who won.

I left this on her bathroom mirror so it would be the first thing she saw when she woke up.

 

Then I woke up

(super tired because I stayed up for all the speeches and celebrations and then some)

to her hoots and shouts of joy!

Which was awesome, because if I heard the predictions correctly youth, women, and Latinos are becoming quite a forceful voting group.

Late the night before, I teased to Darin

"if I am hearing this correctly, America is about to be ruled, by young, hot, women!"

He said,

"I don't have any problem with that!"

And I thought about our household,

and I thought...

"I think that would be great!"

Happy Voting Day!