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Hi everyone,

Well, 2021 hasn't' started out quite as we hoped has it? Just last week I wrote to you these words:

"My commitment to 2021 is to focus on gratitude and compassion, of lifting people up to see their own beauty within and the beauty in others. The time is now for each of us to do our part to inspire another. Whether that is with the simplicity of a smile or a listening ear or a grand gesture of thanks, each action toward that end makes a difference. May 2021 be the year we all find relief and recover, together."

I stand by that commitment and as a way of offering some inspiration, I want to share with you a portion of the poem "The Rock Cries Out To You This Morning" by Maya Angelo. It comforted me this morning and I hope it will do the same for you.

"...Here, root yourselves beside me.

I am the tree planted by the river, Which will not be moved.

I, the rock, I the river, I the tree I am yours--your passages have been paid.

Lift up your faces, you have a piercing need...

The Power of Thank You

Summer of 2020 is behind us, loneliness still abounds, and I continue to miss our friends and family in spite of technology that is meant to keep us connected. Today I was reading a story of volunteers who write letters to people living in nursing homes isolated from their loved ones and to doctors and nurses on the front lines. Their simple acts of kindness made me feel encouraged and hopeful.

That story took me back to the home of my friend and mentor Laura Carmichael. Her desk was always filled with note cards, rolls of stamps and a sharp set of sheers, a City Directory (this is an old-timey book of names and addresses of everyone who lived in the city), a telephone book (another old-timey artifact that had phone numbers and addresses), and her coveted address book. For more than 60 years Mrs. Carmichael would clip pictures of the brides from the Sunday paper (remember those?!) and mail the copy with a congratulatory note to the bride and her...