highs.lows.

we do this thing at the dinner table fairly regularly where we share the highs and lows of our days.  a way to connect and get snapshots of one another's days.

i'm going to share a bit of highs and lows with you from my last few months.  i'd love to hear your own (comments!)

i always start with lows so you can end on a positive note.  not everyone would do the same...

lows:
the lows have been really low.
*the amount of overt xenophobia, racism and misogyny among others are so present in the headlines, from national leadership and swirling around in the "land of the free" in the past few months has been created fear, families torn apart, international [negative] attention and a heightened concern for my neighbors (literal, metaphorical... you name it).
*in two of the spheres i work in, there has been drama, hurt, division, confusion and new realities.  paired closely with the low mentioned above, this has been a difficult season.
*illness.  i know too many people that i love who have either been temporarily sick or have longer journeys with sickness and disease and are, in many cases, fighting for their lives.
*it has rained.  a lot.  (see highs)  but somehow being quarantined indoors can lead to insanity.  imagine what it's been like at any school nearby.  i know firsthand it's been a difficult season at our local school, due in part to the many days forced indoors.

highs:
*travel.  between family trips and work trips, i've been to arizona including the grand canyon and the santa cruz mountains and baltimore.dc.delaware.pennsylvania including a visit to my childhood home and beloved loch raven reservoir, and a few other places.  i also have upcoming trips to mississippi/alabama for a family wedding/mini-reunion, germany+ and alaska.  the adventurer in me is so, so happy.
*work arenas.  the same places that have caused turmoil have also simultaneously been places where there have been cool things happening -- more community engagement, bigger platforms, and new paradigms.  i love learning and i love connecting and i love people and all three have been happening.
*rain!  we've been in a 4 or 5 year severe drought and so far our dams and spillways have held up enough to not flood everything, everywhere.  the rain in the northern half of our state has brought the whole state probably about 90% out of any kind of drought, and that's including our desert-like big city friends (think: water-less on their own) in the southern part of the state.
*home.  i really, really, really love my family (near and far) and our neighbors.  today i'd invited a neighbor to come over to bake cookies together and hang out.  something in the works for awhile.  one of her kids filled in with translation here and there, but she was so giddy that her hopes for friendship and community have been coming to pass despite all the circumstances that made it necessary to move to this new, foreign, and strange place (having left almost literally everything besides immediate family behind).  and i was giddy that i get to be one who welcomes and helps create space for friendship and community as well as being on the receiving end: reciprocity!  one of my friends reminded me not too long ago that not everyone has these deep, rich, cross-cultural, global relationships -- they are such a gift to me and our family!