Inauguration Day 2021

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This day started the way mine usually do:  I wrote (for my sister, and for myself).  It was a few hours (since we no longer have cable) that I realized today was inauguration day.  (I've had it in my head that it would be tomorrow.)

I just watched Vice President Harris being sworn in, as well as inaugural poet, Amanda Gorman recite her incredible poem - and I have to say - I have been counting down to this day since a week into the last presidency.  When it was a dot in the distance, nearly four years away.

[Image: Vice President Harris]

And we're here.  We made it.

We made it, but so many didn't.  So many have died senselessly, due to police violence, due to choices made not to react in ways that kept us safe when a pandemic was on the horizon.

There's a reason many of us seriously grieved four years ago.  And yet, I couldn't quite fathom just how bad it got.

I was afraid this day wouldn't come - after the events of January 6th, I honestly did not know what to expect.  Would the White House be vacated for President Biden and Vice President Harris?  What if he just...refuses to leave?

But, he has, and I am breathing a sigh of relief right now.

Apologies.  I know this post is a bit of a hodgepodge, but I really just want to document my thoughts and feelings today.

Four years ago, I wrote in my private journal:

It's a new day, and it's a dark one...I am scared.  But if we cannot trust a president to keep us safe, I want us to be able to trust each other.  I will be a safe harbor for friends.  For family.  We must protect each other.  We must be everything that he is not, so those qualities still exist in the country.

So, thank you.  Thank you to all of those who have kept each other safe these past four years.  Thank you disabled friends, thank you, everyone, who kept us fed in the early days of quarantining, thank you essential workers, thank you Amazon drivers and Fed Ex drivers and mail carriers.  Thank you to everyone who wears a mask when you go out.

Thank you for protecting us.

Thank you for having our backs.

Now, let's take a deep breath.

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