Pots and pans banged from outside the apartment as steam rose from a pot of fresh coffee. Alerts on our phones rang and a new day begun with the announcement that Joe Biden was elected president.
I hadn’t seen my brother since before the pandemic. He’s a doctor who has been working tirelessly in downtown Seattle. We spoke on the phone periodically and his energy was lower and more exhausted each time. He finally had a weekend off and I jumped on the opportunity to visit.
We looked up from reading the news and I saw tears of joy swell in my brother’s eyes. Layers of relief saturated the room along with fresh air that had been missing for (four) years. Jeremy ran to the kitchen to join the neighborhood exuberance outside the window. A frigid fall breeze draped the house filled with our frozen smiles.
We grabbed coats and gloves, jumped on our bikes, and headed out to the city. Elation permeated the streets. Strangers hugged one another with joyful eyes and smiles masked. Music boomed and bottles of champagne popped on every corner. The weight of 2020 was lifted in those moments and replaced with excitement for a new day.
