Maria and I went to vote today at 9:30 a.m. in the tiny little town hall just down the road that serves as a justice court and town meeting site.

The line was out the door and the beleaguered voting clerks – mostly our neighbors – said there had been no let-up in the lines since 6 a.m.

Sounds like this is an important day in our country, as I left the polling place, I felt grateful for what the political turmoil and challenge has done for me, my country, and my life.

We both love voting in this tiny old space, everyone knows are name, and we joke and laugh with one another, even though we most likely vote in very different ways.

This is a rock-ribbed Republican town, and I am no rock-ribbed Republican. If someone is puzzled about the ballot, we all rush to help.If someone has no marker in their booth we rush to hand them one through the closed curtain.

The clerks know who we all are, they have found our names in the register before we even get to them. Maria says she wants to sign up to be a voting clerk next election.

I am grateful to see that I have not succumbed to anger and rage these past two years, thanks in part to you all out there, and to my decision to go good rather than argue about it. It was the right decision for me, one of the most important in my life. I think many of you feel the same way, judging from my mail.

I am grateful to have stayed grounded, I believe this has made me a better person, and I look forward to continuing on that path.

I am grateful I live in a place where I am encouraged to vote, and can vote freely and easily, and without tension or suspicion.

I am grateful to be awakened to how much I love my country, and how much it means to me. I am grateful I have been successful in helping many refugees and immigrants in their struggle to acclimate to America, work that has brought me back to my own roots.

I am grateful the 2016 election led me to plunge into my work at the Mansion, I am so proud of what we have done there. I am grateful to be helping gifted immigrant children get scholarships to the best schools.

I am grateful to see Maria also awakened these past years to her feminist soul and strength and voice, and grateful to see so many women stand up and say “enough” and raise their voices and run for office.

I am proud of her and the quilts and potholders and vulva stickers.

I believe women are the great hope for our country and our world, and it is wonderful to see them in their moment.

I think this moment is very real and will be lasting. They will bring about great change, in many different ways, they are a wave and I can feel it crashing.

I am grateful to see so many people pay attention to their political system, their values and their hopes. I believe we have a lot of bumpy miles ahead, and I may not live to see a resolution, but I have faith that good will come of it.

When I think of all the good people I have met and worked with and heard from this year, I just can’t feel bad about it.

I got a message from a woman accusing me of being a “socialist traitor and immigrant-lover, she said I should be ashamed of myself.” I guess she doesn’t like the way I am training Bud.

I did write back to her and I said emotions are unavoidable but cruelty and hatred is a choice, and I did not choose either to hate or be cruel, even as I sometimes succumb to both.

In this case, I said, I choose to not be angry with you or  reply in kind. I am secure in my beliefs and have no need to justify them to you, a stranger on the Internet.

I hope that one day we can learn to listen to one another, rather than shout in grievance.

Today is not that day. I know times are hard for many people, I believe we are causing great and unnecessary suffering all over the world. But I can’t carry the world on my humble and aging back. I can only carry me.

I can’t judge other people for their beliefs, I can only stand behind me. The rest is up to the Gods. I didn’t use to vote much. I do now.

I feel gratitude today, I believe we are all finding out who we are, and who we want to be. And on election day, it is a wondrous gift to know that I love my country and am willing to fight for it in every peaceable. way.