Thank You Lucy Burns...

...and thank you Alice Paul, and thank you to all the women who so courageously stood up for women and their right to vote. Thank you for enduring the hardship, humiliation, and even brutality, all to secure the right to vote.

The first three generations of women voters in my family ( my grandmother, my mother, and me)

Thank you to my grandmother, Florence (Grant) Ingerson, for telling me that women weren't allowed to vote when you were a child. I could hardly believe it was that way in your lifetime! Thank you for impressing upon me how much the "privilege" of voting meant to you. As I cast my vote in this presidential election, I was filled with gratitude to you and to all the women who came before me that made it possible for me to do so.

I am grateful and joy-filled that I live in a country where my voice counts. I have seen and heard so much dread and fear expressed during this election season. People on all sides are predicting terrible things for the future of our country, if their party doesn't win. I refuse to give in to that type of fear. As long as we continue to use our voices and our vote to participate in our government, we can ensure our country takes the direction we want. As long as we remember that our government really is us, not them, we will thrive.

(I do not like discussing politics, at all! So, lucky for you, this is all you will hear from me about it.)