These are anxious days. Hair-pulling, hand-wringing days. We are bombarded from all sides with new and unprecedented developments. Grave threats to our national values and institutions on one hand, and countless calls to action on the other... and then the flood of critique and analysis. Whose strategy is winning? How do we outmaneuver the other side? These are indeed uncertain times.

And yet, there are some things we do know for certain. We know that our blue boat home continues to rotate on its axis, continues its familiar sojourn around the sun. The sun sets and rises, and if we remember to pause we may lose ourselves, but for a moment, in the glorious play of light and color on the horizon.

Beneath the crust of cold earth, the crocuses and the daffodils are stirring in their winter hibernation. The energy of life and living is pulsing in them and in the latent blades of grass and the unseen maple buds. And it’s pulsing in us, too.

The pulse of life calls us to nourish our bodies with good food and movement, to nourish our spirits with art and song, friendship and tenderness, and quiet.

When we heed the pulse of life, we know what we need to do:

To rise in the morning and rest into darkness.
To put our hands, hearts, and minds to work.
To meet those in our midst with compassion.
To join with the vulnerable and speak truth to power.
To play with our youngest and hear the wisdom of our elders.
To heal the sick and wounded.
To grieve the dying and remember the dead.
To be of use, and sometimes, to be still.

The pulse of life is beating in each and every one of us. Amidst the clamor of these times, let us heed its sure and steady rhythm.