Grace from Ordinary People

The time is 1:13am. Sleep won't come to me as my eyes remain glued to CNN watching the nation elect its next president. At this time, it appears that Donald Trump has won, so Clinton's campaign manager, John Podesta, appeared in front of the crowd at Clinton's HQ to encourage people to go home and get sleep as the final votes continue to roll in.

Meanwhile on CNN, Corey Lewandowski, furiously shared his frustrations about Clinton's no show expressing that Trump would not be shown the same mercy of the tables were turned. Regardless of where you land on this argument, the words shared by CNN pundit Van Jones will stick in my mind as words that extend beyond the election:

"Where's the grace gonna come from? It's got to come from ordinary people."

No matter your feelings on anything else Van Jones shared tonight, this rings so true. And powerful. Does the president, any president, have an influence on our lives? Sure. But you know who has a stronger influence on our individual lives? It's our neighbors. Our friends. Our families.

And this grace manifests itself much more than marking a checkbox on a ballot. Am I downplaying voting or government? Of course not. But real change starts at home. It starts with us taking action on an individual, and like Van Jones shared, it involves extending that grace on a home front. We may have elected a new president tonight, but he or she will only be around for four or eight years. The impact we have on the lives of individuals last for a lifetime.

If there's one thing I hope we all walk away from this election with, it's that thought. And that's especially important as this election has seemingly divided the nation in half. Whether or not you find yourself on the "winning" or "losing" side tonight, the real winners are the ones who impact the lives around them on a real scale.

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Five Albums to Listen to This Autumn

There's no doubt in my mind that autumn is my favorite season. I love everything about it. Of course, there are the things like cooler weather and pumpkin-flavored treats, but it goes beyond that for me. Falling at the end of the year (pun not intended), autumn signals an end of sorts in a number of ways. The year is coming to a close, so I find it as a time of reflection. Nostalgia is a very appropriate word here. Anyway, music is something very important to me, and I purposefully don't latch onto a single genre of music since I since there is a time and place for everything. The fall is no exception, so I wanted to share five albums you should give a listen to this autumn. I'll even take it a step further and recommend a specific song from each album, too. Without further ado, let's get into it.

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