Monday Moment: Ripple effect

Welcome to a brand new week! Pretty much regardless of where you live in the world, a fresh start probably sounds appealing right now, even if it does require encountering a Monday to make it happen. Amidst the magnitude of difficult events around the US and the world, it’s easy and understandable to feel helpless. Unless there’s a major world leader reading this, most of us don’t have the power to enact sweeping change ourselves. What we can control is limited to ourselves, and even that is challenging, right? But that doesn’t mean we don’t try.

In the face of trying times, we can strive to be a light. We can be kind, generous, and compassionate in regular everyday interactions with others. We can listen, and engage in difficult conversations for the sake of creating empathy and understanding. We can make others feel heard, appreciated, and welcomed in our space. We can recognize the beauty in our differences. We can hope that these small choices ripple outward, inclining others to do the same and creating communities where diversity and mutual respect are central. We can start that ripple ourselves, and will it to echo out as far as possible.

Photo credit: Robbins Flores