It’s a bright, shiny new year. What will we do with it? Instead of resolutions for New Year’s, a focus word (or two).

Today, on Labor Day, I’m thinking of the many people I know who are laboring or heavy-laden, and I pray for them to find respite, peace, healing, comfort and support.

In the winter of our COVID-19 discontent, spring is a reminder that resilience, empathy and love are the strongest contagions.

Labor Day weekend of 2000 was the last time I saw my Mom; we shared cherries and empathy at the beach house on the Bolivar Peninsula.