Connection Matters. Especially Now.

Today was one of those days when there simply were not enough hours.

Even though I set an alarm to leave the Friday morning coffee time with the neighbor ladies, I was enjoying the conversation so much that I did not even hear it go off. That may also be because my ears are plugged this week. I ended up spending an extra hour chatting with one of the ladies, and honestly, it was worth it.

I rushed home just in time for my monthly call with my friend Mary Anne in Pennsylvania. I am so glad I made it. We talked for a full hour, well, more like an hour and fifteen minutes, before she had to get back to work. Time with her always feels grounding.

After that, Joe and I headed out to run errands. Costco and the local market for groceries, a stop at a tool company in a nearby town, and then Menards to buy yet another tool along with some hardware odds and ends. It was one of those errands-heavy stretches that eats up more time than you expect.

When we finally got home, I squeezed in a short thirty minute session on the NuStep before Charlotte and Megan arrived. We went out to dinner and then clothes shopping to celebrate Charlotte’s birthday. A good evening, full of ordinary joys.

Now I am home again, trying to wrap up chores, write a bit, and get back on the NuStep for another forty minutes before calling it a night.

Life is good in so many ways these days.

And then there is the world outside my bubble.

Sadness over the death of Catherine O’Hara. More documents released from the Epstein file. I am all for consequences for molesters and abusers. I am not interested in their political affiliation, and I am not interested in their excuses. There is no excuse for what they did.

Then there is the arrest of independent journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort for following protesters into a Minnesota church to continue their reporting. Note that Lemon and Fort are both African American. Note, too, that there was more outrage from people in the White House over this incident than there was over the children killed and injured in the shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in August 2025.

And that is only what I know about. I have not even looked to see what has happened since earlier this afternoon.

With all of the awful and scary news piling up, I find myself even more grateful for the connections in my own life. The coffee conversations, the long-distance friendships, the errands run together, the birthday dinners, the quiet routines that hold me steady. I know I am blessed, and I know I am privileged. For today, at least.