So I was going to write about the life celebration for my wife Joyce last Sunday, where there was so much love, and laughter, and memories about this wonderful, loving person who left us too soon. And I will, but this first.

Recent events caused our daughter Tori to post the following on her Facebook page today. And I asked her permission to repost it here, because it’s so beautiful, and relevant, and it resonated so much with what I’ve been feeling lately. So here it is, without a single edit. What she has to say transcends all political affiliations, I hope you find some inspiration from it.

Jeff

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I had some thoughts this morning.

Love is. It IS. And you can pluck it from yourself to us as a shield, or a weapon, or an embrace.

Love is infinite- you can find it everywhere you look:

Do strangers make space for you in traffic? Have you done something kind that had no impact on you personally? Does your dog stare lovingly into your eyes when you’re just trying to poop?

Have you sacrificed, even when it felt like a total loss?

Fear is a powerful tool, used to sew mistrust and divisiveness. It can feel like hate at times I’m sure. These feelings can inspire deep emotions in anyone, and those can be used like a shield or a weapon, or maybe even an embrace of its own.

When you meet these emotions in others you can decide, each time, to greet them with your own shield or weapon, or maybe with an embrace.

I hope you are finding Love when you do so.

The last US census (2020) documented 331,449,281 people living in this country. People you shop with, you share the road with, who may shop for your groceries, care for your children, share annoying video-meetings-that-should-have-been-an-emails with.

People with lives of their own, with people (and creatures) they love as deeply as you love your loved ones.

People who have lost. And are about to keep losing, and suffering.

No matter how you feel about the outcome of the election this year, there will be consequences for our communities.

For those of us who will not be immediately impacted, we have no excuse to allow despair into our hearts.

Love is the first step. There are lots of other steps after that. Go take them.