I'm not sure whether or not to write this...

I haven't been on in a while. And part of that is that life is just busy. Sometimes by the end of the day, I don't have anything coherent to write. And sometimes I would just rather do something else.

But the other part is this: I don't want to offend anybody. I don't want to post things that could bother those friends and family that spend their busy moments stopping by here every once in a while. And my brain has been a little fixated on that which might offend. Yup - what I am beating around the bush is the upcoming election.

Here we are, 9 days before the election of the next president. And as much as I have always followed and been interested in politics, I am not sure I have ever felt quite as passionately as I do right now. I truly feel that the future of our country will be greatly shaped by the person that becomes our next leader. Maybe more so now than any election I remember. And I desperately hope that one candidate beats the other.

It's hard.

I know that people I care about feel very differently than I do. These are people that I respect. I don't understand where they are coming from, and I know that I will not change their mind.

So I've decided to leave my candidate of choice out of this post.

Instead, I have come to you tonight with my true agenda for this post. Vote. Just that. Please vote. Vote with your head and your heart. Research, research, research. Feel good about the choices we have. Make the choice that rings true with the hopes you have for our country, our world. Honor those who fought for our opportunity to complete a ballot. And then celebrate.

I cast my ballot last week (love that Vote-by-mail!). While I didn't get to model to Max and Luke the process of going to a local election site and cast my vote like my mom modeled for me, we did a little dance and sang an impromptu voting song as we marched to the mailbox. And I felt lucky to finally have an opportunity to vote for someone I believe in.

I hope the same for you. And I guess that's all I want to say about that.

Oh - and if you are in Clackamas county, please vote for our libraries.