2021-12-24

Dear Miss Gorman:

The poem you shared eleven months ago this week is for the Ages. "The Hill We Climb" was more than a distillation of a couple hundred years, more than a summarization of collective dreams, more than an expectation of commitment to progress. More than any echo of "Deuteronomy 30:19, you reasoned for all of us to set aside and to work astride the perceived and tangible challenges in favour of the opportunities, of change, of wonder, of love.

Too often (even in other times of the year), one might lose hope or faith or even mere solace from the losses we are aware of, from the divisions around us, from the grief and exhaustion that have touched us. Andrew Garfield mentioned recently that grief "...is unexpressed love." Your poem expressed for all a love that outlasts a mere year, that brings external, eternal Joy from a sharing... hopeful... faithful heart and mind and soul.

Particularly stunning was your insight

"For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it.
If only we're brave enough to be it."

It is true that one particular Declaration noted the importance of "the pursuit of Happiness". In those moments, you reminded: While others pursue happiness, those blessed by Inner Light create it. We sometimes forget to see the Light in even the simplest moments: feeding one of God's creatures; sharing one of God's paintings; hugging one of God's children; even simply holding a hand, a showing of God's Love.

It was observed (more than two generations ago) that the Apollo 8 astronauts "...saved 1968..." through their reminder of Spirit to all of us "...on the good Earth." Your own timeless words -- shared when this year was not even three weeks old -- may have saved this decade, and deserve renewed contemplation during Christmas. May you always be inspired... and may you forever be inspiring....