Inauguration Day 2021

How the day began:

Antiphonal calling between Mot Mot bird and Keel-Billed Toucan at O-dark thirty a.m., sounded a brief duet of whoot-whoot to drrrrrrrk drrrrrrrk drrrrk drrrrk back and forth. Quite possibly I was the only human privileged enough to hear. There are only a few of us at the end of the jungle road, and most are still sleeping when I am relishing the human silence and the subtle sounds of the dark morning. Constantly awed by the present moment that surrounds my treetop abode, my non-human neighbors called me to prayer that day, January 20, 2021.

Often my practice begins organically with burning herbs, offering with the smoke all that is necessary to both release and request for we children of the Earth to be free from suffering. Particularly I went to deep prayer roots, calling for the protection and safety of all involved with the inauguration of Vice President Kamala Devi Harris and President Joe Biden. Joining they and there families prayers in Mass, I know millions of people around the world prayed too.

Calling on the power of the Divine my plea was for our prayers to form an impenetrable armor of light to enfold and protect all of the day's ceremonies and humans. I prayed for goodness to triumph over evil, for TRUTH to prevail. I prayed for hate to be removed from people who wish harm to the U.S. democracy.

The ceremony and the day returned to me a sense of hope that I did not imagine I would feel ever again. And a new hero, the glorious Amanda Gorman. As rare a beauty as Toucan and Mott Mott she is now in front of the world. May her voice echo long and far for all humans to hear.

The new dawn blooms as we free it

For there is always light,

if only we’re brave enough to see it

If only we’re brave enough to be it

Amanda Gorman

Up the Hill

1.20.2021

American poet Amanda Gorman reads a poem during the 59th Presidential Inauguration at the US Capitol in Washington DC on January 20, 2021. Source Patrick Semansky/AFP