I live and write on Lingít Aaní, and gratefully acknowledge the past, present and future caretakers of this beautiful place, the Jilkaat Kwaan and Jilkoot Kwaan.

 

My husband’s hunting buddy called this morning, just like he does every morning, and he asked how the weather was over here on Mud Bay where all the hippies live, and I said lovely. The sun is out, it is a new day dawning, full of hope and change. (It is raining and gray, but I love election day.) He laughed. Then I asked if he voted, and he said yes, and  I joked, “For my guy Obama?”

 “Yes Ma’am I did.”

What?—  “You’re joking right?”

 “I already feel a little guilty so don’t tell anybody.”

Just goes to show anything can happen. In the meantime, I’ve got my eggs all in one basket, as Mark Twain said, and I’m watching that basket. Also, I am thinking about  about Harriett Jurgeleit, and her cheerful commitment to America, she was in the DAR and Daughters of Colonial Wars, and how at her memorial they shared a prayer she prayed every day. I recognized it as the same, or very close to one we Episcopalians call A Morning Resolve. This is a good day to share it with you, since if you are like me, and like Harriett, who I suspect would have voted opposite of me today– and you care very much about this election, which will leave about half us celebrating and the other half in tears, this could help guide us through the times ahead:

“I will try this day to live a simple, sincere, and serene life, repelling promptly every thought of discontent, anxiety, discouragement, impurity, and self seeking; cultivating cheerfulness, magnanimity, charity, the habit of holy silence; exercising economy in expenditure, generosity in giving, carefulness in conversation, diligence in appointed service, fidelity to every trust and a childlike faith in God. In particular I will try to be faithful to those habits of prayer, work, study, physical exercise, eating and sleep which I believe the Holy Spirit has shown me to be right. And as I know I cannot in my own strength do this, not even with the hope of success attempt it, I look to thee O Lord.”