--Marge Piercy
It's been one week since we as a nation came together and swung open the doors to a new day. People are writing, talking, sharing what this all means. What having for the first time in our country's story a person of African descent leading us forward says about how far we've come and where we are headed. Yes, I know that this matters. In insurmountable ways, electing Barack Obama as our 44th president matters.
I'm not sure it is for mainly these reasons though that I find myself getting caught off-guard this past week by sudden well-springs of emotion; a tight squeeze of the heart from some unknown force, followed by cleansing tears. It happened again today, on forested trails above my home, while watching these autumn days turn. The gusts of wind tossing countless leaves dancing into a nickel-gray sky. Care-free cascading towards solid ground, and then, together en masse, they begin to do the work they are here for, work which will continue throughout the dark winter months ahead, necessary work for the greater good of this planet.
There is a stirring about, the world in a collective exhale. Finally, we can all breathe again. We've been waiting for so long, waiting to know what our future holds. And for so many of us, after years of dread and doubt, shame as we watch greed and narcissism tap-dance upon a world stage, there is finally a reason to celebrate. To be proud of our leaders and how they represent us. I am seeing it, feeling it all around me. From the mouths of the poets upon the stage, in the music of Ozomatli on a Friday night, in the sincerity of a letter scripted by a young child to her future president, the "thumbs up" from the driver next to me at the light...in the smallest of ways I sense the power of hope restored in a people, and with it a determined will to land on solid ground together, to do the work that needs to be done. Ahhhhh!!
"This is the blessing for a political victory. Although I shall not forget that things work in increments and epicycles and sometime leaps that half the time fall back down, let's not relinquish dancing while the music fits into our hips and bounces with joy our heels."
--From the Art of Blessing the Day by Marge Piercy
