I like Winter. Don’t get me wrong. I like starry nights and snowy days. I like cozy candle-lit rooms and reading and writing and eating clementines.

But not unlike Summer, Winter must be respected. All these Summer fans forget that people who lived without air-conditioning in their houses and cars were not always so sorry to see summer end. Winter offered respite from working in the fields and gardens as well. It wasn’t that there wasn’t hard work, but there was time in the dark for stories and mending of lives and the tools of our livelihoods.

But in this picture, snow threatens. I actually like snow… but the picture captures ominous. And threatening is the way I’m feeling about my world right now.

We can wring our hands, or we can prepare. We can ask ourselves how we will work for peace. I’m not great at countering what’s going on… and besides, we don’t know what’s going to happen. But we can build relationships and connections. We can practice radical hospitality. We can prepare to wage Peace. We can practice. We can Love.