with the world watching
as he takes the oath
tears
on every face
from the same old well of new hope

I expect yesterday will forever be a defining moment in the world's history, not just because we put into office our first African American president, but because we finally elected a president who will not be self-serving, but a true leader in every sense of the word to a nation and a people crumbling, unraveling and in need of someone who can unite us first with his oration, and secondly with his leadership that is booming with confidence, encouragement, energy, goodness and action for the good of all. And for the first time ever, we have a president that realizes his responsibility and influence on a world.

Yesterday, as I watched Obama's inaugaration, while I was of course mesmerized by his speech, and how he spoke not only to a nation, but to a world, it was the faces of the people that I will most remember, how every face, young and old, black and white, wealthy and poor, in Washington on the mall, in a church in Alabama, a bar in Boston, a school in Kenya or Indonesia glimmered with hope. And what struck me was how these tears were really all from the same place. There might be different experiences behind the tears--some might have lived through segregation, or losing their job or their home or their life savings or perhaps even a son in Iraq, but the tears of everyone, even those in other lands, were tears from the very same well--this well of new hope. You could see it in the eyes of every person--hope that this man just might be the man to unite a people and a nation and a world once and for all.

And I couldn't help but think yesterday, before Obama had even stepped foot inside the oval office, that he had already accomplished one of the most remarkable feats that any leader could--he had, with words, found a way to unite all people with one simple old fashioned, but very powerful emotion--hope. And what better emotion to have as his building block? Is it not better than anger or fear or bitterness or even pride? Hope embraces humanity--it is not self-serving or capitalistic or violent--it holds only goodness. This is a difficult time we are living in, and it will not be easy to "remake" our country, but after what I witnessed yesterday, on the faces of all the millions of people watching all over the world, I really do believe that anything is possible.

day after his funeral
on the beach
the winter sun melting
the snow
eiders huddled in the surf

It has been quite a week. David's friend Don finally succumbing to the cancer on Saturday, the cooking and visiting on Sunday, visiting hours on Tuesday and the funeral on Wednesday--all this taking place more than an hour away, with snow and ice the morning of the funeral, and then right back into life as usual on Thursday. As Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost often wrote of, the living goes on. In "Out, out--" by Frost, the last line: "And they, since they/Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs." I can't say that it's quite as simple as all that, but walking on the beach the next day,I couldn't help think how life just keeps going. Of course, not without being affected. This was a close friend of David's, too young to die, leaving a wife and four children, all who very courageously spoke in the church, a church packed with friends, family and students he had taught and coached over the years--his death leaving a huge void for so many. My heart breaks for his wife, for his family and for David who has lost such a good friend, co-worker and partner. And then there were all the conversations we had had about death and what really happens to a soul after death--something I was still thinking about as I walked the beach that next day, so different than the day before, with the sun and the waves and the birds just resting off the shore. And I thought, yes, maybe we do turn to our affairs, but don't we turn to them with an even greater appreciation and renewed gusto for life itself? Doesn't death in fact teach us something about life? About its fragility, about its remarkable essence? So the world goes on the day after saying good bye to our dear friend, but not as usual--as extraordinary.

found belly up
in the winter sunshine
little haiku dinghy