On Saturday, January 23rd, 2016, snow fell from the sky amid gusting 60 mile per hour winds, and was declared a blizzard.  Sixteen inches of white stuff fell in Greenwich, Connecticut. Thirty-six inches of snow fell in Staten Island, New York. That’s a lot of snow! The Mayor of New York City measured it this way; "The weekend snowstorm dropped 105 billion pounds of snow on the city." And an amazed visitor from Mexico City said, "I've never seen anything like this," as he carried his suitcase in his cold, ungloved hand, and trudged along the snowy sidewalk.

What if I know you’re not perfect, and I love and admire you anyway? There’s no such thing as perfection in nature. Nature models this everywhere. Flowers are perfectly imperfect: a curled leaf, a twisted stem, or a misshapen petal. Oranges are perfectly imperfect: not quite round, not uniformly orange, and with bruises on the skin. No two sunsets are the same: in clear weather they can be glorious spectacles; in stormy weather they can be barely noticeable. While we have preferences, there's no single model of perfection: no perfect flower, orange, or sunset. And that's true for humans as well.

Do you celebrate Martin Luther King Day? Dr. King is the only non-president to have a national holiday dedicated in his honor. It’s well deserved. During the 13 years of his leadership of the modern American Civil Rights Movement, there was more progress toward racial equality in America than in the previous 350 years. Dr. King is regarded as America’s foremost advocate of nonviolence. Emulating his role model, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. King led a nonviolent movement to achieve legal equality for African-Americans in the United States. It was part of his dream. He went on to lead similar campaigns against poverty and international conflict. He always stayed faithful to his principles that men and women everywhere, regardless of color or creed, are equal members of the human family.

Many of us are humming Taylor Swift's song, "Shake It Off". Yes, the melody is great, but it’s more than that; the message resonates with us. We've all had personal experiences when people say or do hateful things. We get lost in the pain of the experience until something shifts and we’re able to shake it off. But what does that really mean? "Shake it off" is not new wisdom. There’s an ancient parable that delivers the same message. It's about a farmer's old mule.

We’re beginning a new year filled with new challenges. Inevitably there will be a storm of wins and losses. Each will help us grow by building character, new strengths, and relationships. Caring relationships support us. They form a strong bond - a network - a connection of invisible strings.