Olympics, Lent, and the Year of the Fire Horse

This week, across the globe, citizens are coming together with eyes on Italy. Not to argue politics or report disasters but to celebrate Olympians, who, despite odds, are showing what is possible on snow and ice, in wind and storm, with or without cheering crowds.

American’s are stealing our hearts not only by grabbing the gold, but through their dignity in defeat. After her horrendous fall, the skier Lindsey Vonn, told us she has “no regrets” and goes further to remind us “the only failure in life is not trying.” After his free skate Ilia Malinin acknowledged he “blew” it, but added, “You learn more from failure than you do from winning.” Their courage inspires the whole of us.

Oh, how we need this coming together. The six rings form into one fabulous symbol to remind each one of us what resilience and passion looks like. What camaraderie looks like. What hope looks like. What global unity looks like. And it’s joyous to watch!

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Sand Castles

Sand Castles. Beach Dreams. High Hopes. No matter what you call them, we all got them. Staring across the horizon, designing a better version of yourself, for yourself. In the quiet stolen fleeting minutes who doesn’t dare something better? There are days when those fantasies feel exactly as far fetched as the word implies. Just a million miles away. Other times, against the odds, even on shifting sand, quite credible. Perhaps as a world watching the heroic the daring the daunting and dangerous Olympic feats we all allow our dream to grow a bit bigger. Shout our aspirations out there. Come what may.

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I am struggling

I hate hand guns, and the weapon industry that makes it seem like a good idea for citizens to own arms, but WTF?! “You can’t have guns. You can’t walk in with guns,” the president said about the cold-blooded public murder of an American VA nurse who carried a concealed and permitted SIG Sauer P320. Dear America, how, just how are you rationalizing an inept ICE, and a heartless Federal Response with all their subsequent lies to convince people not to believe what they just witnessed in Minneapolis, again. I can’t hold such horror in my mind and yet I can’t stop thinking of those families who now have an empty chair at their dinner table thanks to the undisciplined and criminal behaviors of this poorly trained yet heavily-armed-paid mercenaries. Where is your outrage? Where is your defense of the 2nd Amendment? What is you limit to the retribution agenda of your wishy-washy President? What happened to the rule of law? Are you too struggling as I am?

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