encouragement for today

We are finally getting some much needed rain here in Vermont. I hope it has come in time to rescue the foliage season, or at least jazz it up a bit.

The gloom and chill seem a bit oppressive after days and days of sunshine, so I thought I'd share two encouraging links here.

• The 2015 MacArthur Fellows were announced yesterday. You can read about them here. I love to see philanthropy and great ideas collide. If only these folks were in the headline news every day, instead of the steady stream of gloom and doom that mainstream media chucks at us!
• This wonderful piece by Parker Palmer is also worth a read. He quotes Gregory Ellison ll, "You can't change the world, but at every moment, you can change what's happening within three feet of you". In this commentary, Parker offers us a list of 5 ways we can "heal a wounded body politic".

What would you add? Do you have a little something encouraging to add here? Every little bit helps. :-)