his longtime partner died of ovarian cancer at age thirty-three. He was still grieving her loss and told me that one of the hardest parts of living day-to-day was that everyone thought he should be over it by now (and he wasn’t).

I say this in the wake of Hurricane Harvey (and the prospect of Hurricane Irma) and the onslaught of distressing news, day after day. I say this because although those of us not in Houston have moved on to other, daily concerns, many of the people and animals there are still dealing with the after-effects.

One possibility, if you feel called to help those who were affected by Harvey, is to give to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. They have sent volunteers to Houston, are already picking up stranded animals and transporting them and are looking for more volunteers. (Matt and I visited them earlier this year in Utah. What an amazing place. It does a heart good to see the goodness at the heart of us all).