{Love comes more naturally...}

Thank you, President Obama, for reminding us!

"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love. For love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite."

-Nelson Mandela

(On August 12, 2017, after the racists events in Charlottesville, Virginia, President Obama tweeted this quote; it became the "most liked" in Twitter history.)

{What the Obamas Did Next}

"The Obama Foundation will be a living, working start-up for citizenship—an ongoing project for us to shape, together, what it means to be good citizens in the 21st century," shared the familiar voice on the video.

See Michelle and Barack Obama share a look into "what's next" for them as "private citizens" in this video on YouTube. Two inspired and inspiring "old souls" who will continue their open-hearted work!

{With Poise and Grace}

As planners of elegant events in Washington DC, Maria Baer and Kelly Seizert, the two lovely young women owners of Ritzy Bee Events, shared how they do many events on "both sides of the aisle" and have observed and learned a great deal the last eight years. 

I love Maria's comment from the past "inaugural" weekend on Ritzy Bee's Instagram page, in a beautiful acknowledgement of Michelle and Barack Obama—and isn't this what life is really all about?

The influence from witnessing two parents carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders while raising their daughters with such poise and grace has also left a mark. Realizing how necessary it is to teach our girls inclusion, fairness, dignity and compassion is what I am most grateful for.

Yes! Thank you to the Obamas for their kind-hearted eloquence of spirit! 

{Sisterly Advice}

"Explore your passions. Learn who you are. Make mistakes—you are allowed to."
This is some of the advice Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Bush, twin daughters of former president George W. Bush, shared in a recent letter to Malia and Sasha Obama as they get ready to leave the White House.

First published in Time magazine, the sisterly advice shares love and compassion beyond politics. Click on the Huffington Post to see Jenna and Barbara reading the letter with images from both the Bush and Obama White House years.

{Acknowledging Women in Your Life}

"In farewell speech, President Obama delivers poignant remarks about Michelle and daughters," wrote Women in the World staff writers for the New York Times. 

"....for the past 25 years, you have not only been my wife and mother of my children, you have been my best friend," Mr. Obama said to Michelle. And to his daughters: "Of all that I've done in my life, I'm most proud to be your dad."

The article has a link to the President's entire address....

This is how you speak with grace....and this is how you honor women.

{Talking to Daughters With Respect for All}

I appreciated an article that was published on Yahoo.com soon after the presidential election in November featuring a series of interviews with President Obama conducted by The New Yorker's David Remnick. 

The focus was how the president talked to his teen-age daughters, Sasha and Malia, about the outcome of the election and about a man who had spoken so viciously about him, so crudely about women, so maliciously about the disabled, and who had so little respect for telling the truth. 

Once again, President Obama, an articulate and thoughtful man, focused on "kindness and respect and understanding." 

What I say to them is that people are complicated. Societies and cultures are really complicated…This is not mathematics; this is biology and chemistry. These are living organisms, and it’s messy. And your job as a citizen and as a decent human being is to constantly affirm and lift up and fight for treating people with kindness and respect and understanding. And you should anticipate that at any given moment there’s going to be flare-ups of bigotry that you may have to confront, or may be inside you and you have to vanquish. And it doesn’t stop…You don’t get into a fetal position about it. You don’t start worrying about apocalypse. You say, O.K., where are the places where I can push to keep it moving forward. 

"The President’s words can certainly help in a time when many parents are wondering how to talk to their children about what the future holds in the face of a Trump administration," Remnick remarked.