Some excerpts of my thoughts

To begin: Thomas Fuller once said, "The soul is not where it lives, but where it loves."
If this is true, my soul is a widely spread one. She is a citizen of The World, refusing to be wrangled by the constraints of one simple country or place.
Life is beautiful. And here we are--we are dropped into the middle of it. We feign a beginning at the start as we enter the world wide eyed and pure when everyone else is far on along... someone has always been there, but never like you.
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Someone else said, "Let the beauty that you love be what you do. There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the earth."
I search for every way to let the beauty that I love shine through the color-by-number days that dominate. On the first day of classes this semester, a guy said he was there because "I just want to learn anything about everything." I think that's a good life goal. So let's learn anything about everything, astounding ourselves by our capacities to live and to be wondrous creations.
In the end we will find that it is so much easier to open our minds to think and to wander and our hands to keep us on the ground, working through trials together and celebrating victories as one.
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My life has been blessed with exquisiteness, but never so much as when surrounded by the bluest of ridges. Fire on the mountain with fall, or the purity of snow under the bare trees, I delight in this home and in the honesty of this true love. I love what I learn in them and I love seeing their beauty and majestic glory and the awesome power they hold and release so willingly. Although I am driven and called in so many directions, these rolling graces are my identity and my base of being. Although I know I will have to part from them for a while, I see myself marrying this ancient pureness that teaches me, gives to me, and takes from me. I see myself spending eternity here, even if I must leave for a bit. Time here is short. I savor every moment here and every experience and all I see, do, learn, hear, feel, and all. It's an interesting position to be in--in the beginning of time and I don't have time to do it all. But this world is so big and intricate and small and glorious. And there's so much for us to do and I love this, this overpowering and overwhelming freedom and possibility. Just possibility and freedom.
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It's the search for Beauty and Goodness that compels me and motivates me. This search will lead me throughout my life, whatever it will bring.
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I try to embrace the next step of the soul, when finality is on the tip of everyones' minds. We must all embrace it, as scary as it seems to be that lonely. But what counts is how we arrive at this next step, surrounded by and fluent in all dialects of love, or silenced by the lack of the truest tongue? It doesn't matter where you're going--what matters is the journey. And that is so true. Sometimes we get too caught up in being grown-up and "mature," whatever that is, when what we could probably use is a dose of child-like innocence. Let's immerse ourselves in the joyous purity of life, love, and wonder. Family, friends, places and learnings. Let's fill our moments with worthy thoughts and actions and praise for the opportunity to do so.

a change is on its way

As we enter the polling booths, fill the little bubbles with names beside them in, and make our voices be heard in how we believe the country should be run, people all over the USA, North America, the Western Hemisphere, and the WORLD sit down, turn their TVs and radios up and wait to see just how the people of America have decided to lead their country. I must say, America, I do approve the decision we have all made! (338-200 electoral votes)
It's amazing the feeling that comes with pride. Being 21, I've never really been old enough to understand what is going on in politics until about the time of the Clinton shenanigan. Since then, it has tended to be downhill. Consequently, I've always experienced this feeling of urgency, this feeling that if Americans don't do something rapid and dramatic our country and world will be irrevocably damaged. Tonight, this seemingly endless feeling was justified with such a GRAND and GREAT feeling of RELIEF.
When Barack Obama won tonight the presidency of the United States of America, I once again became proud to be americana. Once again proud to think of a future where I walk through the streets of Mexico, Spain, France, Argentina, or any country, for that matter, and where I hold my head high because I know that the policies of America are just and right with the world. I've walked through many a street in many a country and never have I felt honestly proud to be American. Tonight, I know that my future will be different.
The next four years are going to be full of trials and tribulations, but they will also be full of hope and deliverance, of results and hard work. The next four years are going to show an American public as satisfied with its president as we were with JFK. The next four years are going to show the world just how open minded and willing America is to progress and to develop sustainably. The next four years will show how we can cut the path for this future.
I'm looking forward to being represented by such a thoughtful and considerate man as Barack Obama. When I think of Obama on the stage in Chicago during his speech, his face serious and professional, his words true and clear, for the first time in my life I am really and truly proud to be an American. For the first time in my life I can truly say, I think that America is going to go somewhere positive here, and I can truly say, I think that we are going to be pioneers in demonstrating what is honestly right and good in the world.
Barack Obama has shown us what it is to be a decent and diligent American. We should all strive to match his standards. We should all strive to imitate him. We should all strive to be our best, and we should do it for us, for our children, for our world, and for our president.
Yes, we did.