A friend left me a message this morning that said, "Good morning. Welcome to the first day of the new paradigm."I hope we look back on today and find that it really was the beginning of a new era!
My prayer is that we hold in our hearts the knowledge of how it feels when the efforts and hopes of so many people come to fruition. And that we stay organized, continuing to work together to create real change. And that we honor each other, the planet, and the web of life more and more each day. And that our new president holds as sacred all of the hopes for a just and sustainable world that motivated so many people to work so hard in this election. And that one day voting is the very least thing that people do to shape their world as we all come to understand our own power and our connections to one another and the planet. So may it be!
My photos from election day in Asheville (sampled above) are up on picasa here and some of the greatest hits of Asheville for Obama (sampled at left) are here.
4 comments:
Last night was an amzing evening.
I will never forget the thrill in my heart when the announcement was made.
I still get shivers.
Maybe I can finally be proud to be an American again (yes *I* just said that!).
Heather speaks for me as well; both the shivers and the return of pride.
A lump in my throat as I write this.
Interesting - I had the same experience of remembering what it feels like to be proud of my country. It was an incredible night. One of my favorite lines from his speech: "For that is the true genius of America – that America can change. Our union can be perfected."
I know exactly what you all mean.
A friend of mine who was part of the group of us watching returns on election night is a kindergarten teacher. After the networks called it for Obama, she said with tears in her eyes that she would finally be able to look all of her kids in the eyes and tell them that they could grow up to become whatever they want. And mean it. And that she was going to hang an American flag in her classroom for the first time.
For me this moment represents a "third way" - not blind patriotism and not hopeless cynicism, but a sense of shared purpose that acknowledges our imperfections, our history, the realities of where we are right now. It's a new feeling for me to feel a part of that on a large, national scale....
President Obama!
Post a Comment