Things that kept me going this week
Lots of emotions, lots of hope.
Since I wrote you last, a lot has happened in the world. Too much, in fact, to cover entirely, or even in part, like I typically like to do.
So instead, I’m trying something new this week - a list of things that personally kept me going, or that I found inspiring, in a season where we (or maybe it’s just me?) needs all the inspiration to keep going, and keep fighting:
The Los Angeles Dodgers winning the World Series in an epic seven game series, led by Yoshinobu Yamamoto finding something from somewhere (yes, that’s the best I’ve got to describe what THAT was) to come back to the mound after pitching 96 pitches in Game 6 and closing everything out. I used up all of my emotions by last Saturday night, in other words, and YES I wore my Dodgers sweatshirt out and about in the Bay Area on Sunday and for once no one said a single word about it.
Tuesday, November 4, 2025. I think everyone else has analyzed it a lot better than me, including Zohran Mamdani, whose epic acceptance speech was so eloquently captured in a moment of joy by Bess Kalb in the wonderful Grudge Report. What I loved most about Tuesday was the turnout. So many of us showed up to exercise our right to vote (in my state of California, Prop 50 won by roughly a 2 to 1 margin, and voter turnout was amazing for a special election), and have our voices heard, and that gave me so much hope. I also loved reading state recaps of what worked campaign wise (from a grassroots view) over at The Grassroots Connector. That erased some of my personal trauma from a year ago, although I recognize we have a long way left to go. But at least, if we go down, we’re going to go down fighting.
Reading how people put the last year into one sentence, through WTFJHT (WTF Just Happened Today), where he always starts with one sentence to sum up the daily news. Some of these made me nod my head, some of these pulled at my heart, but I loved the ones the most that are holding onto what I am, as well: fight, and hope.
How people on my local Nextdoor are finding families whose SNAP benefits have been cut and are offering to bring them food. This is community at its finest, and it reminds me of a video that I saw of a woman in Chicago talking about the after effects of ICE coming to her area. It wasn’t that they were sowing fear - they were bringing neighbors together, in the end. Find yours, too, who need you now and ask how you can help.
Playing Texas Hold Em with my boys one night after everyone had had dinner and was showered, instead of everyone separating into their own areas, as teens/tweens are so good at doing. We worked on card shuffling (key for legitimacy in this poker world), bluffing, and winning with grace. All important things, perhaps not in that exact order.
Seeing fall colors out in the world, even if it was while waiting for my younger son’s soccer practice to finish. I have said for many years that I don’t need to witness all four seasons personally (I still believe that to be true, I’ve done winter and I’m over winter), but seeing leaves turn to red in a land where we don’t have many trees that do that still signals to me that we are heading towards a seasonal change. A photo of that is below, which I managed to snap right as both of my boys turned around to see what I was doing. Then I got: “MOMMY OMG WHAT ARE YOU ACTUALLY TAKING A PHOTO OF?” When I told them it was leaves, I got a: “WHY?! BECAUSE IT’S PRETTY?” (If you have teens/tweens, you know that volume control is an issue too…). And when I said yes, I just got an eye roll and a sigh. I view that as a win for me.
I’ll leave you with this list - I’m sure there are more, but these are what immediately came to mind when I sat down to write this. I’m collecting these moments, though, and things, so please send me yours from the week too. I’d love to hear what sparks hope, and joy, and keeps you going.
To the little things,
