On A Day Like Today

A little story from Zosia that we found lying around:  "One day, I saw a colorful tulip.  When I saw it I was amused.  It was so beautiful.  I loved it."

when all of a sudden, the world around us feels uncertain and dangerous and scary, I take great comfort in knowing that in this little house, we can wake up in the morning and choose to be peacekeepers.  

That we will never be able to control the world around us, but we can cultivate love in our own hearts.  

Such love is a discipline: something we have to teach ourselves to do over and over again until it is just what we do.

And it feels incredibly puny and inconsequential, in the face of the tremendous evils that exist in the world, to say "I will love my family today.  I will speak gently with those around me.  I will catch them doing things right and be encouraging and joyful.  This is what I can do for the world."  

Which is deceiving, because really, such love is revolutionary.  It is powerful and transformative and redemptive.  If we go to bed at night having accomplished just this, then it will be enough.

We are holding our little ones close, as all of you are, and praying for the seeds of peace in our own hearts.  Because this is where we start.