Most days lately, I need to remind myself that there is courage in showing up and doing the best we can with what we have - to do for our neighbor what we can’t do for the world. Despair feels like watching a toddler try and grab all the tiny bubbles she just blew, convinced she can carry them. Watch us both lay sprawled out in our own tears.
Get up, keep moving - joyful resistance. In planning for Second Saturdays at the shop this month, I connected with Kristin, owner of Happy Brain Bakeshop locally here, and as we chatted through the magic of cookies, she shared with me that the flavor she’ll be launching with us next month was inspired by the recipient of her bone marrow whose life she saved through a transplant. Once strangers, Kristin now gets to see this young woman graduate from college. Having faced my own mortality and been in need of a potential bone marrow transplant, I viscerally feel the power of this moment - love saves lives.
This Valentine’s Day, I wonder if we hold onto this kind of love, the radical kind that moves us toward people who we don’t know with the people we do. Perhaps this is the kind of love that continues to change the world - gather the donations, attend the prayers, drop off the groceries, donate at blood drives.
Heart global, move local, I once read. We will not fall into despair.
