Daily Dose (Dec 30 – Jan 2)

TUESDAY DECEMBER 30 — This week, our invitation is to embrace soft heartedness, and the gifts it offers—the gifts of compassion, and empathy, and healing.
And we take to heart Kate Bowler’s affirmation, “But I think tender heartedness is the ability to stay not just broken, but broken open to the world around us. There’s so much pain that just breaks us. That’s the truth. There’s so much fear, too, and there are very good reasons to feel scared and overwhelmed right now. But I believe soft heartedness is one of the only ways that we can move forward. The alternatives are likely too heavy to bear.”

And I think of my hero, Mr. Rogers.
I’ve said in talks and in Sabbath Moments, “We sure could use more Mr. Rogers in our world these days.”
And the power of the gift of soft heartedness, is that the light spills, from what is already there. And yes, even and especially, from the broken places. This isn’t something you add to your life, as a performance or achievement.
Fred Roger (“Mr. Rogers”) calls Yo-Yo Ma one of the “great appreciators of our world. It seems that people always walk taller after they’ve had an encounter with him. The only thing that’s larger than his talent is his heart.”
Mr. Rogers tells the story about a day he was privileged to sit in on one of Yo-Yo Ma’s master cello classes. “During that master class one young man was struggling with the tone of a certain cello passage. He played it over and over and Yo-Yo listened with obvious interest.
Finally, Yo-Yo said, “Nobody else can make the sound you make.”
That young man looked at Yo-Yo Ma and beamed. What a gift those words were not only to that cellist, but to everyone who was there. Nobody else can make the sound you make.”
“Well, nobody else can live the life you live. And even though no human being is perfect, we always have the chance to bring what’s unique about us to live in a redeeming way.” Fred Rogers
Yes, and amen to soft- and open-hearted people.

With a few exceptions, I do my best to see those around me with Mr. Rogers’ lens: Inside of everyone a light shines.
Inside of everyone, there is a sound that no one else can make.
Of course I’m quicker to see it in others than I am to see it (or believe it) in myself. I know you can relate. The light inside does dim from time to time. The sound is muted. Or that’s what I tell myself. And if I’m honest, I know how easy it is to live small or to be diminished or to feel broken; by shame or exhaustion or discouragement.
There are so many ways that we are all chased by pain or sorrow or unkindness. And somehow, this light shining thing is easier to believe without all the broken places.
Which kind of misses Leonard Cohen’s observation, “There’s a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”
And I would add; and that’s how the light spills out.

My world is still a good bit unraveled from technology snafus, but a glass of wine by the fireplace with Celtic Christmas music is the perfect tonic. And yes, to Christmas music. I’ll put the CDs away after the twelfth day of Christmas, January 6.

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 31 — One Saturday, a mother asked her young son to polish her Sunday shoes. When he finished, she handed him fifty cents for a job well done.

Sunday morning, slipping on her shoes, she felt a block. Reaching in, she removed a wadded paper. Inside the paper she found fifty cents. On the paper, in her son’s lettering, “Dear Mom, here is your mommy. I done it for love.”

Yes, and Amen. The gift of soft heartedness—spilling compassion and healing.

“There’s a light in this world, a healing spirit more powerful than any darkness we may encounter. We sometimes lose sight of this force when there is suffering, too much pain. Then suddenly the spirit will emerge through the lives of ordinary people who hear a call, and answer in extraordinary ways.” From the film “Mother Teresa”

My friends, let us remember than many hearts are sore. Brokenness is real. In people around us, people we know and love. And yet—the gift of soft-heartedness. So, thank you again, Mr. Rogers. “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”
In the Holocaust Museum there is a story about an exchange in a concentration camp on the Day of Liberation (1945). The prisoners still alive in concentration camps, were being set free. A young American Lieutenant, extraordinarily moved by the bleak and foreboding nature of the setting, asked one prisoner to show him the camp. As they approached a building, the lieutenant opened a door for the young woman, and she collapsed in tears. Certain he had offended, he did his best to comfort her. After some time, she told him, “I am weeping because it is the first time in years that someone has done anything kind for me. Thank you.”

With one simple gesture of kindness, we remember that a human world of helping is still alive and well, even when the news too often, feels otherwise.
I don’t tell this story of the Holocaust Museum as some kind of motivational tool. As if there is an obligation to “be kind” or to be merciful. I tell it as an affirmation, and as a reminder—mostly to myself—that within each of us there is a light. And that this light—of hope and dignity, of delight and passion, of justice and grace, of beauty and wonder—still shines, regardless of whatever may conceal it.

And yes, there are times we forget. However, there are also times when a simple act of kindness, or gift of compassion, rekindles the light in our own spirit.
This gift we give to another, becomes a gift we gratefully receive.
In the story, both the giver and the receiver are liberated.
Just recently I saw someone wearing a shirt with the saying, “Radicalized by Basic Decency”. I nodded and smiled. And it did my heart good.
However, sometimes, I am broken. Very broken. And I don’t have the words. And I don’t have the strength. So, how can I be a witness then?
Well, this is interesting. You see, compassion (service and care and basic decency) and healing (restoration) are not mutually exclusive. Because the light we share is born in those broken places. Which means that being a witness goes hand in glove with renewal.
In other words, we find replenishment and we choose to be a witness. This is not a pep talk. This is not a test to pass. Or a list I check off for God’s thumbs up. This is permission; the invitation and the affirmation to be and to live, wholeheartedly, softheartedly, and kindheartedly, the truth of who I am.
Please know this my friends: it is from this self—the broken or wounded self—that compassion and kindness and tenderness and empathy and healing and reconciliation can flow.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​THURSDAY JANUARY 1 — There are still vestiges of Christmas in the living room. And yes, Christmas music is still in the air. The coffee table strewn with devoured books. The Accidental Pilgrim, Maggi Dawn. Separation of Church and Hate, John Fugelsang. A Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children, Haley Cohen Gilliland. How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith, Mariann Edgar Budde. And, Change the Recipe: Because You Can’t Build a Better World Without Breaking Some Eggs, José Andrés. I do love books.

And of course, the tree stays up until the 12th day of Christmas (January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany). I’m content to live this way until Lent. But something tells me that I am obliged to shift gears. What with the New Year and all.

People who know me understand that deadline means, “time to get started”. Let’s just say it drives my list-making-friends barmy. And this quirk doesn’t really serve me well during New Year’s resolution time.
I could tell you that I’m going to aim high; Lose weight and get fit. Or I could aim low; When I hear a funny joke, I promise not to reply with a laugh emoji.
My gut tells me that the truth fits this one; I will read the manual about inner peace… just as soon as I can find it.
This I know for certain; laughter is good for the heart, and the soul. Stephen Colbert said we need to see it “as a daily counterpoint to fear.”
“You can’t laugh, and be afraid at the same time.” Colbert said earlier this month when receiving the The Robert F. Kennedy Ripple of Hope Award (Robert and Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center).

And I can tell you is this: In 2026 I will keep telling stories. Because stories keep us sane. “Remember on this one thing, said Badger. The stories people tell have a way of taking care of them. If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive. That is why we put these stories in each other’s memories. This is how people care for themselves.” (Barry Lopez, Crow and Weasel)

A farmer walks along the furrowed row, stopping every three feet, to place a potato start into the soil. His young son keeps pace, on the opposite side of the furrow, weighted with a burlap sack of starts, wholehearted in assisting his father. He places starts into the soil; unhurried, deliberate and methodical. There are times when he picks the start from out of the ground, in order to turn it, so that the eye of the potato may be placed at the exact angle.
The neighbor, who has been watching over the fence, decides to offer his opinion.  “I see you’re planting potatoes,” he tells the farmer, “But I’ll tell you this; it’s going to take you a good long while at your pace. Let me tell you like it is; you’d get it done a whole lot faster if you’d plant this field by yourself.”
“Well,” replies the farmer, “that may be true, but I’m raising more than just potatoes.”
We do make a difference in our world.
And the choices we make do matter.
There are days when I need to hear Mr. Rogers’ voice, “It’s not so much what we have in this life that matters. It’s what we do with what we have. The alphabet is fine, but it’s what we do with it that matters most. Making words like ‘friend’ and ‘love’. That’s what really matters.” 

Welcome to the year 2026 my friends. And yes, we do get to choose the kind of world we want to live in. Let’s begin with Helen Keller’s reminder, “I am one, but still I am one; I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; And just because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”
And I will take Mother Teresa’s words to heart, “If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”
Now we’re back to New Year resolutions. So, I begin here. Indifference is not an option.

I carry this quote with me from Carlos Santana, “The most valuable possession you can own is an open heart. The most powerful weapon you can be is an instrument of peace.”

FRIDAY JANUARY 2 — We do make a difference in our world.
And the choices we make do matter.
There are days when I need to hear Mr. Rogers’ voice, “It’s not so much what we have in this life that matters. It’s what we do with what we have. The alphabet is fine, but it’s what we do with it that matters most. Making words like ‘friend’ and ‘love’. That’s what really matters.”

So. I can choose to be kind.
I can choose to be generous.
I can choose to be inclusive.
I can choose to not demean or shame.
This is not because we get points, or rewards in heaven. We can choose because this is a reflection of who we are, at our core. This little light of mine.
I love the work I do; talking, teaching, entertaining. But, if I’m honest, there are times when I wonder why I still do “what” I do. I know that I have choices. But on my darker days I wonder, what difference can I really make?
We know we have choices. What does it matter what I do?
This may be an old story. But I love telling and retelling it…

As the old man walks the beach at dawn, he notices a young man picking up starfish and flinging them into the sea. Catching up to the youth, he asks a simple question, “Why are you doing this?’
The boy answers that the stranded starfish would die if left until the morning sun.
“But the beach goes on for miles, and there are millions of starfish. How can your efforts make any difference?”
The young man looked at the starfish in his hand and threw it to safety–into the ocean past the breaking waves. “It makes a difference to this one,” he said.

Yes, my friend, our choices do make a difference. They matter.
Let us take these affirmations into our New Year.
“The majority of us lead quiet, unheralded lives as we pass through this world. There will most likely be no ticker-tape parades for us, no monuments created in our honor. But that does not lessen our possible impact, for there are scores of people waiting for someone just like us to come along; people who will appreciate our compassion, our unique talents. Someone who will live a happier life merely because we took the time to share what we had to give.
Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have a potential to turn a life around. It’s overwhelming to consider the continuous opportunities there are to make our love felt.” Thank you, Leo Buscaglia.

“The plain fact is that the planet does not need
more successful people.
But it does desperately needs
more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers,
and lovers of every kind.
It needs people who live well in their place.
It needs people of moral courage
willing to join the fight
to make the world habitable and humane.
And these qualities have little to do
with success as we have defined it.”
David Orr

Prayer for our week…
“The Work of Christmas”
“When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the people,
to make music in the heart.”
(From Howard Thurman’s “The Mood of Christmas and Other Celebrations”)​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Photo… “Terry, Another golden day. I always think of you and spilling the light when I see such beauty! Much love,” Anne Carter Mahaffey… Thank you Anne… And thank you for your photos, please send them to tdh@terryhershey.com

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