I went away to meditate for seven days, and in his remarks closing the retreat, our teacher Norman Fischer said “Kindness is the only response that makes any sense”. And then we emerged from that silence by the lake to find a world the same as we left it, torn apart by violence and riddled with fear. But also still a world that contains the possibility for change, and a hope that we can do better. Since coming home on Friday I have felt that growing in me, an impossible shoot coming up through the cracks on the concrete – a steady and flowering need to do something positive in this suffering world.

And so I will. I will do what I can in this world right now to meet life with an open heart. I’m not entirely sure what that looks like yet – but as I figure it out I’ll post more here.