The Old Faithful perform at the Inaugural Ball in Washington D.C. Band members (left to right) Andre Eglevsky, Adrienne Young, Oliver Craven, amd Jay Starling.

It was one of those moments you wait a lifetime for...a happening which affects the entire collective - like the Beatles appearing on Ed Sullivan, or the Victories and Defeats of Martin Luther King, Ghandi, and JFK, the passing of John Lennon...the day the Towers fell...So often, an untimely end is what draws people together. United through loss and horrific circumstance...not this time...not this time. This time, it was the wellspring of passion and renewal - the symbolic birth of a new nation experienced for the first time by younger generations, feelings our Grandparents surely knew when the dark days of WW2 finally came to a close. We've heard about those
experiences but never been a part of one, at least I hadn't. A surreal elation that is bonafide under All Things God, the pain and shame and blame of hundreds of years, finally out on the table and rectified in one fell swoop...we have begun again, given an honest-to-goodness second chance to choose hope instead of fear, connection instead of disconnection, common ground instead of boundaries, and not just with each other - but most importantly - within ourselves.

We were jubilant and honored to be part of the festivities in D.C., as citizens of this glorious country, as members of a glorious humanity so blessed to exist on this heavenly planet. We played at one of the Inaugural Balls last night with many wonderful musicians from Austin - was a time to remember. This morning, up early but though not able to get onto the National Mall proper, we did get behind the Capitol and viewed the swearing in along with hundreds of others staring silently, solemnly,
enthusiastically up at a large TV screen where the cheers of the crowd on the live broadcast could be felt and heard from the actual throng behind us - just on the other side of the Capitol...there we were - in the universal embrace of this precious moment...holding hands with strangers (actually, there weren't many of those around today - just folks you hadn't met yet), singing songs long familiar to our shared melodic lexicon, weeping tears of joy and relief that it truly, truly is a new beginning, one in which it is not just ok to believe in the best possible scenario and aim for the top - it's now at the top of the agenda and absolutely expected!

It was COLD and lines were long for everything from the metro to tea but it was still an exercise in democratic jubilation to be bonding outside in 20 degree weather with thousands of bodies united in the desire, and fortunate ability, to physically participate in the energetic power of change. People crowding around one another, feeling such warmth, on every level...

We enjoyed dinner with new friends in Chinatown...here's the fortune I chose..."Never judge the size of a mountain until you get to the top"...

Hear, hear. We have again, begun to climb and this time, we're going to make it.

                                                                                            Adrienne