This evening the sky was amazing--soft and silvery. As the sun set and the moon rose, I heard the first sounds of peepers in the woods announcing another spring. After winter's cold, and the ugly-spirited election debates and tweets and attack ads, and the unfathomable hate crimes in Belgium and Paris and Turkey and Syria and Iraq and our own city streets, I felt my body uncoil in the beauty of nature's rebirth. 

My nephew—my sister Maggie’s son—posted this photo of his mom on Facebook this morning. I have been looking at it, on and off, all day, waiting for a moment to stop, and let it speak it to me. Now, as the sun goes down and a light snow is falling, I look into my sister’s eyes and I see the whole story of her life in them.