Can We Breathe Yet?

Yes.

Take a deep breath.

There is never any reason not to breathe when clean air is available.

The Trees Don’t Flinch

The news Wednesday filled me with rage. I made the unwise choice of watching Trump’s speech to the mob as he was making it. Obviously they were going to storm the Capitol, given how he was juicing them up.

I spent the day wanting to kill him.

I walked in the park late that evening. The trees absorbed my violent thoughts and feelings easily, tranquilly, without flinching and certainly without judgment. They’d heard it all before.

Can you breathe yet? — Photo by Motoki Tonn on Unsplash

Kindness Always Matters

On a rainy night this past week, I handed a loaf of bread to a homeless man who was huddled in a doorway on Hawthorne Boulevard. There was an empty liquor bottle or two at his side, a sleeping roll, and he was smoking a cigarette. He vacantly accepted the bread and muttered a thank-you.

I doubted the bread would help him much.

Later, thinking about him, the thought struck me that every kindness matters, no matter how small.