History was made this week. In the same ten minutes I absorbed the results, I asked my husband to confirm the milk order.

John Lennon said it wisely, “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.”

Or when you’re tackling to-do lists while watching the possibilities for humans literally shift in one direction or another.

Regardless of what you were hoping for this week, I hope you have found chances to be kind to one another. I hope beauty surrounded you. I hope comfort abounds.

It’s hard to write in times like these. Cautious fingertips pause paralyzed, intending not to offend. I hope we can agree to open our hearts to the good things in front of us.

In a coaching session with a friend today, I recalled a mantra I learned from my compassion colleagues. Strong back. Soft front.

May we stand true in our strength, letting our values guide our interactions and our hopes. And may we be open to the very magic that happens when we truly see one another. Fears, scars, hopes, wonderings. May we crack open, just a little bit, in the direction we want to move, with softness.

Because the milk orders beckon. And, so too, does the future we are writing for our children.

“Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light“. – Albus Dumbledore