Dear President Trump,

The sad, scary, enraging stuff I wrote to you about yesterday hasn’t gone away and isn’t going away anytime soon; kids are still contemplating suicide today and young adults are still concluding that it doesn’t make sense to have children. Nothing has substantively changed – you’re still lurching from one manufactured crisis to the next, people in your administration are still blaming vulnerable souls for their catastrophic mistake, oil barons are still destabilizing the plains with their fracking, and the American people are still out shopping. Just another December day in the life of our democracy.

And, like every other day, there were some lovely positives that were nice to lean into for a bit of respite today. The weather here was overcast, mild, and dry so being outdoors was pleasant. Laura got going early and started in on yard work around 9:30 this morning. I was much slower out of the blocks. When I finally finished my tea, I looked out the front window to see how she was doing and had the thought “she’s such a good thing,” which most days doesn’t propel me to strive for “good thingness” myself, but for some reason today it did. So, I got busy and did several indoor in support of the common good. A major bonus was that the entire time I was doing the dishes I got to look out on a flicker in our backyard poking around for insects and helpfully aerating the grass. It was beautiful. After that it was dog walk time and then I went out front to help Laura finish up. It was really a very nice morning.

I had committed to helping out at church this afternoon (there’s a huge gala event happening there this evening to celebrate the 25^th anniversary of Seattle’s People’s Institute, an organization focused on dismantling systemic racism) and on my way I pulled in behind a car with a little sticker that said “I Am UCC,” which is the denomination of my church. It’s so nice when random things happen to line up like this. My volunteer assignment was also pretty perfect for me – I was tasked with making a bunch of centerpieces from evergreens and baby’s breath. And then to round things out, on the way home I got behind a big white paneled truck that was quite grimy and in the grime someone had drawn a heart.

May we keep flickers safe.
May we let ourselves enjoy enjoyable things.
May we find ways to pull love forward through the grime.
May we keep pushing for peace on earth and good will for all.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson