Welcome to my blog! I don’t know if I will be able to be consistent in posting, but there is always hope.

As we enter the 2015 holiday season, I have a few thoughts that have been gestating in my mind, especially considering the political climate. I wonder about the hate and fear that is so casually strewn about in our digital world. It is so easy to express those terrible feelings online, and so it becomes easier to express in a physical or verbal way – or at least that is what I’ve observed. It would be so easy to let myself fall into a blue funk, to lose all optimism and hope about the future. Then I think about my kids.

Over the past few years, my kids have surprised me in so many ways. For example, when I first started elementary school, there was not one minority in the student body. Not a single one. Then my family moved to a smaller town right before I entered 5th grade, and I was bussed to the other side of town where I was the minority. I joined Camp Fire Girls and I was the only white person in the group – and I loved it. I had the best time, and our leader was one of the most generous, intelligent and loving women I have ever known. Every year until she died she made me an applesauce cake for my birthday. (I wish I had that recipe!) Despite her best efforts to bring the community together, the general atmosphere always carried a hint of racial disquiet. Fast forward to a few years ago, and one of my son’s best friends is a mixed race young girl. To him, that means nothing. Their elementary school is racially, ethnically and religiously diverse. Even when we discuss homosexuality or transgender issues, to my kids it’s ‘business as usual.’ It gives me a lift, a fresh feeling of optimism, to know that to them it’s not worth the strife.

I hope that my generation is the last to have experienced unease and fear when it comes to race and gender issues. It will take more time, I know, but I view my kids as the light at the end of the tunnel. While there is war and suffering in the world at large, in our little home I have found peace and a hopeful future. I wish the same for your house.