The sunny morning of this new year fills me with hope. My blog reflections today will not be predictions but outcomes I hope for in this year ahead. President Barack Obama inspired us all with his gospel of hope. “I have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting,” he said.

Here are my hopes for 2019:

That we find a way to reunite children with their parents;

That fewer of us die from guns;

That an amoral leader is removed from office;

That women will gain the power to control their bodies;

That affordable education will return as a national priority;

That leaders will take seriously the stewardship of our planet and act to save it;

That maturity and wisdom will displace partisanship and greed;

That we listen more than we speak;

That public budgets will reflect the importance of the arts to life;

That we forgive more than we punish;

That we work harder to unite than to divide;

That we love everyone regardless;

That we find the courage to give voice to our hope.

Barack Obama reminds us: “One voice can change a room, and if one voice can change a room, then it can change a city, and if it can change a city, it can change a state, and if it change a state, it can change a nation, and if it can change a nation, it can change the world. Your voice can change the world.”