As a go through my days right now, from time to time I find myself holding my breath.

Waiting.

I have no idea what for, or maybe I do.

Waiting for the next crisis to hit. The next war, the next political nightmare, the next shock.

It feels like the shocks have just kept coming lately, and so I remind myself to breathe.

And breathe again.

We cannot change the world right now, in this instant. In this breath. We cannot change the world, but we can continue to breathe.

We can continue to exist in a world where some people would prefer that we disappear like snow in the Florida sun.

This minute the pain and dismay are too recent, too freshly bleeding, too ongoing, for us to rise and walk toward the new day that will come as surely as the heat comes in August. We aren’t ready to rise and walk just yet.

But we can heal.

We can enter the fabulous season of winter, and we can enjoy one another and plan for the future.

We can be together.

And we can breathe.

Rev. Amy