Good news

It must be starting to look like the end of my January blog-a-day project meant the end of my blogging, but it's not! There was just a blip when a work deadline got in the way this past week. Despite the stress, I managed to savor that it was the last of the (foreknown) ugly deadlines for the next few months. It helped that I also had my annual review and there are some good (if approved) things potentially coming my way, if things work out as I hope.

Let us pause for a moment to celebrate with a picture from last year's birthday trip to Maryhill. Aren't the trees pretty? Even though it was taken in mid-March, it looks an awful lot like it does outside right now.



But my personal work stuff is not the only cause or even the most important cause for celebration today. Can you believe the news from Egypt? The beginnings of a government transition mostly through peaceful demonstration. I am fascinated by the scenes and stories from this revolution. Mubarak has been in power for longer than I've been alive, longer than many of the Egyptians who brought about this change have been alive. Whatever happens next, today is a monumental day.

Here there are already pundits trying to guess which direction things will take. It's obviously not just a matter of ousting a government and then everything is okay. It is now that the work begins. This will be a journey for the Egyptian people, but for now I am simply happy for them and their victory. Every time I turn on CNN and see the demonstrators, first protesting and now celebrating, in Tahrir Square, I am reminded of my own relatives in Berlin and the jubilation when the wall came down. My mother and grandmother never thought they'd live to see that day, and yet they did. I remember what that felt like and how we sat in front of the t.v. at home crying tears of joy for our relatives thousands of miles away. I have no real connection to Egypt, but somehow that memory does make me feel connected to these people today.