It has been a WEEK and I think we can all agree that our great hopes that 2020 would leave so that the next year would be more peaceful may have been unfounded.

On Wednesday, my daughter and I were running a few errands — which is rare in and of itself with COVID — when I got a Breaking News notification on my phone that armed Trump supporters were forcing their way into the Capitol as the Senate was attempting to certify Election results.

It honestly took my brain a minute to process what I was reading.

As we drove around, we listened to NPR and the news was just surreal. I had the same feeling that I felt on 9/11 in that I both understood what was being said and yet could not conceive of this happening in the United States. …

Christmas cards did not go out in a timely manner this year.

In fact, owing to a medical crisis involving my dominant hand — AFTER I thought I was in the clear — I have a small stack that needed recipe cards included I had been unable to write until now that won’t be going out until tomorrow, the day AFTER Christmas.

(But, you know, for what it’s worth, when those late cards DO arrive, the recipients can know that they have been thought of often and prayed over and that those cards really are a gift of love even if they are just a little thing.) …

Many of you may have missed Tropicana’s, ahem, genius recent marketing campaign with Gabrielle Union — the ad I saw — as well as apparently Molly Sims and Jerry O’Connell — as it was only around for a few days on Instagram for good reason — but my initial post about it was already underway — and, for several reasons that I’ll be getting into, I still want to discuss it, even though they have pulled the campaign.

See, on Sunday night, word spread like wildfire through the recovery community that Tropicana — yes, the orange juice company — had lost it’s collective mind and made a commercial essentially promoting behaviors in mothers that are very much associated with alcohol abuse. …

Today, that phrase from Hamilton,"America, you great unfinished symphony," has been running through my head, as I am finally able to hear the music once again after a long, silent winter.

As you all know, we voted on Tuesday.

Then, we waited for votes to be counted.

We waited as the White House - the leader of the free world - spread disinformation.

Finally, it was declared that Joe Biden is our President Elect and Kamala Harris is our Vice President Elect.

I don’t know how to fully express the joy and relief I feel. …

They're crowded into the smallest spaces

While outside all of nature cries

It's known to be cruel and unfair

But there is no place to hide

Oh I've seen a part of people that I never

Really want to share

Oh I've seen a part of people that I never

Knew was there

Shelter give them shelter from the coming storm

I can't sleep I'm haunted by their faces

The sadness in their eyes

It hurt so much to see them helpless

It makes me want to cry

But still there is so much left unanswered

For so many innocent…

I’ve been political my entire life.

Not just that, I’ve been a blazing blue dot in my glowing red state — Alabama — before I even really understood what that meant.

I remember being a little girl on the playground of Robinson Elementary the day of the 1988 Bush/Dukakis election — voting was held in our school gym and our school also had a student election. …

They sat in company with the others in other shanties, their eyes straining against cruel walls and their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny might against His.

They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.

- — Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

Back in April of 2011, when the nightmarish tornado outbreak hit my state, we were watching our local coverage and we SAW the beast of a tornado that came through Tuscaloosa as it passed Bryant-Denny Stadium — where we spent many of our weekends at the time. …