To my friends—and not just my Quaker community, but everyone:
I have just come through a long, complicated week leading into the Fourth of July. I was fortunate enough to spend precious time with my children, my family, and my friends. I watched the fireworks, celebrated the holiday, and endured some of the most intense weather I can remember. The heat shattered records. Storms rolled through with little warning. It felt as though nature itself couldn’t decide whether to burn or break.
In many ways, the weather reflected my own state of mind.
There was sunshine, but almost too much of it. There was rain, but it came at exactly the wrong moments and with overwhelming force. My thoughts have been caught in that same storm.
As our country emerges from the holiday weekend, we return to a political climate that feels increasingly divided. I hear leaders describing fellow Americans as enemies instead of neighbors. I also hear voices reminding us that America has always been an unfinished experiment—one that depends not on blaming one another, but on continually choosing to build something better together.
Whether you lean left, right, or somewhere in between, I think many of us recognize the same feeling: exhaustion.
The America I grew up believing in feels different today. Public disagreements have become battles. Political opponents are too often treated as threats instead of fellow citizens. That reality can leave us feeling powerless.
But fear cannot become our compass.
We cannot allow ourselves to become so consumed by national conflict that we neglect the responsibilities waiting for us right outside our own front doors.
I am a Quaker. I chose this path because it teaches me to seek the “Inward Light” in every person I meet. That belief challenges me to recognize the humanity of people I agree with, people I disagree with, and people whose struggles I may never fully understand.
That conviction reaches far beyond politics or religion.
It’s about the person standing at the traffic light asking for help. If I hand them a few dollars, am I helping or hurting? What responsibility do I have toward them? There may not be simple answers, but asking the question matters. Looking away does not.
The problems facing our nation are enormous. Most of us cannot fix Washington. But every one of us can choose how we respond to the people standing in front of us today.
If you feel overwhelmed by the state of our country, my advice is simple, though not easy:
Shrink your world.
Find one broken piece of your own community and help repair it.
Volunteer at a food pantry. Join a community garden. Mentor a young person. Support a neighborhood outreach program. Visit an elderly neighbor. Show up where you are needed. When we invest our time and compassion locally, we stop being passive spectators to the chaos around us and become active participants in building something better.
We do not have to agree on every national issue to agree that our neighbors deserve dignity, kindness, and care.
The storms around us may continue. The political noise may only grow louder. But storms eventually pass, and fog lifts when enough light shines through it.
By ourselves, we may feel overwhelmed.
Together, we become a community capable of finding that light—and reflecting it for others.
To do this, we need all of our collective voices. Going forward, this page is transitioning from a single voice into a shared canvas for our community. If you have an idea, a reflection, or a story to tell, we want to hear it. Please head over to the Society of Friends Contact Page and send us a message with your perspective. Let’s lift the fog together.
