I was up at 4:00 AM — partly because of Daylight Savings Time (I’m still an hour off), but partly because I’m anxious to vote early.  My polling place opens at 7:00 AM and it’s how I start every election day.  I get there early, I cast my ballot, and I feel like I’ve started the day on the right foot.

This year, I’m particularly anxious.  Over the past two years, I’ve watched our country succumb to its darker side.  This terrible underbelly has been there since our founding fathers set foot here — but in the last three years, it’s been exposed and exalted by the power-hungry and by an ill-informed, uninspired, selfish, and mean-spirited president. They have tapped into something dark and unconscionable.

But every cloud has a silver lining and we have a groundswell of activists, ordinary people, working day and night to right this ship. More women are running for office than ever before and more young people are voting. Thousands of us have gotten involved in our political system for the first time, doing whatever we can to make our voices heard.

The best way to make our voices heard, of course, is at the ballot box. WE MUST VOTE. OUR VOICE IS OUR VOTE.

So today I am grateful for the awesome responsibility I have to vote.  Even more, I am grateful for the way social media is lit up with stories of voting.  *Pictures of “I Voted” stickers are even better than kittens and puppies this morning.

PLEASE VOTE!  Today is the day we start to right this ship.  Let’s make sure we get a blue wave big enough to carry us forward.

*I’d love to see your “Voted” sticker picture!