Sure we all know about the Big Lie that’s been circulating since the moment Trump knew he lost the presidential election, and those who read and study history know that the original description of the big lie appeared in Mein Kampf. But tonight I want to let all those lies die, about the stolen election or the false claims about COVID or the crazy’s view on the vaccine, and focus on truth. Not with a capital T, but little truths we all recognize. Take a look at the flowers on your windowsill or garden or in a nearby park. The red and yellow and green. Those universal truths about flowers and the joy they bring, both planting them and then waiting in anticipation for them to break through the soil, and then, oh my, watching them wave about in the afternoon sunshine. We can all agree on flowers, can’t we? Perhaps, as we navigate back to normalcy, whatever that might mean for you, we can collectively agree to love flowers, together, truly, again.

How about the deciduous trees leafing out all over the the northern states, from Maine clear across to Washington? Without straining too much, tilt your head back, and take a look at that early green, busting the buds and waving like little flags overheard. Here we can rejoice each day that the temps hit normal and the sun heats all of our landscapes when people are outside walking and cycling or stopping to chat on doorsteps and crossroads. And if they are vaccinated, even brave a maskless moment under the big blue. Here is a truth to celebrate. But could we agree to truly love the clouds and sky?

This year has brought so much fear. Sickness. Isolation. Loss. Death. But those of us with a measurable privilege might have used some of our pandemic time to create something we did not know possible. Now we add new titles to our resume. Bakers. Chefs. Knitters. Even painters are emerging from singular garages to say, hey, hey, I made something this past year, something a bit wild out of all that angst and worry. The canvases may end up staying in the garage but these new endeavors might be worth a conversation about our future hopes. Might we demand more time for this new passion? This new love? Even care more fiercely for our little people and old ones too? Might 2021 be a reckoning for the survival of the planet itself?

As day comes to another glorious end I wonder what Big Truth might unite our polarized country. We have family members who are ecstatic to get the vaccine, who are thrilled with all the common sense initiatives of President Biden, and then we have the YouTube and FOX News watchers who decry it all. I am sure each family has a similar divide.  Perhaps if we all took one lasting look up to the sky as day faded into a brilliant glory, and we conjured a mental list of what gives us individual purpose, we would find more common ground than not? And standing together on that hilltop of our one Earth, we might listen to the hesitancy, the hurt and fear, and let truth allay the divides. I would like that.