Where There is Warmth Out There

World news did not become "lighter" in the days since I posted about hope and candles. There's been pain and hurting at all sorts of levels, from the personal to geopolitical, and I can imagine some of my readers, reeling directly from these hurts or shriveling a little from just observing the pain, asking, "Where is this warmth of which you write?"

I'm directing you to a few very different places where I have found warmth abounding this week. Obviously, these are not "cures" but these are places where the light shines through.

Tear Jerkers

In some of the crazed discussions about refugees and safety, Brandon Stanton probably gets my vote for best use of media platform.  His voice of sanity and compassion shines through as he lets others speak for themselves.  If you are not one of the 16 million people following HONY (Humans Of New York), you may have missed his migrants in Europe series (re-compiled here earlier in November) and his on-going profiles of the Syrian refugees already cleared for the US have sent shivers down the spines of braver souls than me (I'm sitting here waiting for the next installments of the young brothers who want to start a dinosaur museum, despite interruptions like being in a second grade classroom when their school was bombed, but I'm afraid, like the family with the autistic son, crushed because he had been making such progress in therapy, that I will just be left hanging in uncertainty).  You can read about the future paleontologists and many others at Humans of New York (or follow it on many other platforms).

Somehow related in my mind is Rory Feek's blog, This Life I Live.  For several year, I've known of the existence of Joey and Rory, a couple of country singers with a cafe and a tv show, because of the Mister's Parents.  I'd never been all that impressed with what felt like their "cuter-  homier- and holier-than-thou" overly packaged television presence.  It was a friend of a friend who alerted me to Rory's blog a month or two ago, and it is raw and beautiful.  Joey has terminal cancer, and is home with hospice care. They have a daughter, less than two years old, with down syndrome.  I can't read the blog without crying, but I want to read more because of the great warmth and hope that radiates from it.

Practical Notes

It's warm in the Caribbean.  My Friend SalSis in Haiti is successfully teaching ecology to students both young and old.  Some of the stories are chronicled here.

Hope, fear, and action can be approached religiously, as Pastor Elizabeth does on her blog, both generally, and with a particularly personal set of devotions about advent and infertility (or lack of children despite wanting them).  Elizabeth recognizes that waiting is hard, sometimes unbearably so, but chooses to face the world with hope.

Taking a different approach, a different friend of a friend linked to this list of practical things to improve the world when it looks awful (written last week. I have no personal knowledge of Katherine, the author), and yet another suggested that we go our and recycle our unused bras (I lost the funny link.  Here's the practical one: Bra Recyclers.)

And the warmth all around

Following three days fully encased in ice, the roses on campus are blooming,  Geraniums are blooming by the PE building. The kale in our garden is ready for thinning.  The library native perennial planting along the south side of library is full of gold and purple blossoms.  My ecologist self might take this as evidence of the strength of microclimates.  My spiritual self also notes the signs of abundant life continuing.