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Latest — Jan 30, 2026

How We Can Work From Love

The other afternoon, I drove slowly home in thick snow, listening to an interview with a reporter who covers conflict. How are you doing right now? the host asked. Leaning hard into spiritual resilience, the reporter said. Making sure I’m doing the things that I love, that fill me

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Three Unexpected Ways to Meet the Moment

These days, when I’m making dinner or doing the dishes, I’ve been bellowing, “This Little Light of Mine” at the top of my lungs. Or I'll crank the Bruce Springsteen live version up good and loud. It’s an antidote to fear; it gets me out

How We Reply to Violence

I once heard a wildly successful tennis player say that we can be motivated by one of two things: fear or love. Fear is a familiar face these days. Fear for beloveds, ourselves. Fear about who we are to each other. Fear that our country can’t find a path

Who Has the Power to Do What You Want

It’s a snowy January day up here in Maine. I recently learned that my state’s 100-Mile Wilderness stretch of the Appalachian Trail can be so brutal, hikers say, “No Maine, no gain.” Soon, I’ll go walk the dog on the beach (we’ll save the 100-Mile Wilderness

Where to Find Power When It Feels Like You Don’t Have Any

Hello Dear Reader! I’m away from my desk today, but sharing a favorite from the archives. Wishing you a terrific start to this brand new year, Caitie A business mentor of mine always advised to go where there isn’t much traffic. If everyone’s online, be in person.

Some Goodness for You Today

Wonderful Reader, Wherever this finds you in the holiday season, I am wishing you gentleness and ease. This year has asked a lot of our hearts. Should your cup need refilling, here are a few sweet bits and pieces to get the job started. As my Mum used to say,

For When the News Could Crush Your Spirit

One snowy evening, I was cutting sweet potatoes and listening to a newsy podcast. The headlines were heavy with humanity at its worst. As the two hosts talked about a horrendous event, the first host said, I guess there was a guy who risked his life to tackle one of

How to Resist One of This Moment’s Greatest Temptations

Trappist monk Thomas Merton wraps up his book The Seven Storey Mountain with a useful phrase: “Here ends the book, but not the searching.” It rhymes a bit with Rainer Maria Rilke’s guidance to not just live the questions, but to love the questions. And it clashes with that

Nearly Everything I Know About How to Improve Democracy

Let’s say I give you a toolbox with a hammer, wrench, screwdriver, and I tell you to build a house. That’d be awfully tricky to do. And that’s a bit like what we’re given when it comes to shaping our democracy: an incomplete toolbox. Vote, protest,

Three Comforts to Take Us Into a Chillier, Darker Season

Every so often, the weekend linguist in me goes poking around in word etymologies. Which is how I learned that the verb to comfort arrives to us from the Old French meaning, among other things, “to strengthen.” It makes a good kind of sense, doesn’t it? It’s hard