Election Reflections

Hi friends.  I'm back from my (very) unplanned blogging break.  In fact, I'm at least 5-7 blog posts behind where I planned to be by now.  The end of October and first half of November haven't gone how I imagined...  It probably goes unsaid that Eliot and I have been insanely busy.  But it's more than that.  I just felt that I needed a little break.

It did simply start out as being incredibly busy.  Eliot and I had so much to do once we got back from our trip.  I still haven't even done my post trip bucket list recaps- which is unheard of!  After last week's election, everything felt like it went into overdrive.  I've spent the past week listening to my heart, and have been taking a break from the internet and Facebook for the most part.  But now, it feels right to be back.

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There's been a lot of negativity spread around lately.  I've seen posts of despair, outrage, sadness, frustration, and hatred.  I admit, I've had a lot of feelings swirling around in myself the over past week.  I've felt fragile, inspired, scared, sad, hopeful, upset, ashamed, terrified, blessed, disgusted, fearful, proud and disappointed.  But, after riding the tide of emotions, the one that I think I've finally settled on is privileged.

How blessed are we to live in a country where we can elect our leaders?  We can let our voices be heard and we have a say in what happens- even if we aren't happy with the outcome.  We have the right to voice our opinions, whatever they may be.  We aren't prosecuted or physically harmed by voicing those thoughts.  In many places of the world, women can't voice their thoughts, much less decide who they want to be our next leader.  I feel privileged to live in a country where this is possible.

No matter what the outcome of the election was, our next president was already up against re-uniting our country after a hard fought political campaign.  While I admit that I didn't see this as a possible outcome, I'm looking to the positive.  My mother always comforts me in times of uncertainty.  While speaking with her last week, she said, "who knows.  Maybe he'll be the best president we've ever had."  And maybe he will be.

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I've always considered myself to give people the benefit of the doubt.  And I've caught myself slipping up a few times over the past week.  I haven't been ok with most of the campaign rhetoric.  Bashing others is never ok in my book.  Heck, half the reason I haven't been near my blog over the past week was because I wasn't even sure what to write, where to begin, or if I should say anything at all.  But this feels right.

In the end, we're all in this together America- whether we want to be or not.  This is a trying time for our country, as it's quite divided at the moment.  The world needs more love, hope and positivity- and me avoiding the internet isn't going to help with that.  So, I'm going to get back to my posts and try to help spread some Disney magic.  I have a feeling that we're all going to need a little bit of faith, trust and pixie dust.  °o°