And yet, this bench, it could carry them all. Nothing was too much or too heavy for it. It welcomed unbearable joy and gladness. Anguish and anger. Hope. Madness. It could carry loads of laughter, the deep belly kind. Loneliness, the feeling of being left behind. Ugly secrets, that are being kept in the dark. Confidence, beaming from a filled-up heart.

For the one who sits in the tension, between utter joy and inescapable grief. I pray this season you may nestle down, finding a soft place to rest your head. A place where you can feel the peace. May you let yourself hold the extremes, yet feel every single thing in between.

You already have everything you need to make a difference in someone else’s life. You can start today, right where you are at, in your own neighborhood

I knew instantly in my heart, this was an answer to my cry. A simple truth — start with what’s in front of you. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, weighed down by the problems and pains of the world. Hopeless about your part. But it’s always simpler than what we think.

Hope can be seen in the small but mighty mustard seed we carry that keeps fighting to believe that, in spite of today, goodness will always have the final say.

While all those things surely added to this moment, I dug a little deeper and found the true root of his joy. He was happy because he was generous.