Dear one, whether you stay cozy indoors or venture out…

We hope you are safe, healthy and feeling comfort and peace. In honor of Martin Luther King Junior, perhaps you are taking a moment to pause and reflect, recharge, and when setting out again, stepping in the direction of inclusiveness and racial equality.

Perhaps you would like to be inspired anew by MLKJ’s historic speech 28 August 1963. I just listened to it and find it beautiful and all too relevant still.

As much as is was true in 1963, so MLKJ’s poetic and poignant words remain compelling today: “Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline.”

Perhaps this is a weekend to pick up a topical book and further educate ourselves on pressing race issues in America.

Perhaps this is a weekend for action. Stepping out with peace, smile a friendly smile to a stranger, have a kind word for all we meet, or have a challenging yet meaningful conversation.

I’m at the ocean on my first mother hiatus in nearly two years picking up Barak Obama’s A Promised Land, which he describes as “An invitation to once again remake the world, and to bring about, through hard work, determination and a big dose of imagination, an America that finally aligns with all that is best in us.”

Enjoy your weekend, and take good care.