Celebrating Diversity

"A Faith Family Affair"

So the buzz is beginning to die down after the inauguration festivities in Washington DC.Chairs are put away, street sweepers are finished, and street vendors have returned to their usual street corner posts.....but is all the hype and hope over?February is "Black History Month" and it seems to me we've come a long way as a country and an embracing culture.  Let me give a little background!

 My husband, 8 year old daughter,  who happens to be multi-racial, and I made the decision months ago that we'd go for this historic event.  Being originally from the DC area we figured we had it made. Despite the security and crowds we knew that being there was ours to do.  Boy were we surprised at the many, many families that made the same decision.  On the metro we met a woman from Ohio who brought her 4 nieces and nephews to the nation's capital for the very first time! I met a family from Illinois that drove all night to be one of the 2 million people standing on the mall in the cold, shoulder to shoulder.  A man brought his 2 young sons from a neighboring county saying "We couldn't live this close and watch it on TV".  What a statement of hope it really was for so many families, from all walks of life to make the "pilgrimage".  Yes it was crowded and now I know why hand and feet warmers are such good sellers in sporting goods stores up north.  (It felt like 19 degrees with the wind chill factor) Yet in all the hustle of the day, of the weekend, there were no arrests, and of the 30 children who were separated from their families/school groups all were returned without incidence.  The feeling of goodwill and oneness was everywhere, from the young to the old, from those who had reserved seating tickets, to those who were volunteering for crowd control.

What if we continue to build on that hope in our own day to day lives, with our families? What if we continue to chose hope over fear and unity of purpose over conflict and discord?
What if our decisions for ourselves and our children really come from an understanding that "what I focus on I will see more of in my life"? I believe it's possible and now more than ever we need to model and be this for / with our families..........and should a moment get tough just like that cold bitter January afternoon when it took my family 5 hours to get out of the DC city area, let us keep on walking these spiritual truths,  putting one foot in front of the other one affirming as Myrtle Fillmore did, not that our money holds out but that our faith does!