I was struck when I looked at the calendar and realized that we had just finished our Crossroads gathering in Montgomery a year ago. It feels so much further removed from right now than only a single orbit; and yet it feels so present, even prescient. There was purpose to that meeting in ways I felt in the moment, but I didn’t recognize all that could transpire and how the Montgomery meeting was giving me a new lens to understand so much of this year.

I don’t know what’s next, either what we’ll be faced with or what direction new steps will take. I see so many paths for myself and trajectories that you are all on. Once in a while, I see a paper or a post from someone and I’m heartened to think back to a conversation at a table, over a shared meal, on a walk back from the church; and I think to myself about how now I know where you were going with that nugget. It gives me faith in the work.

And I’m excited to see what’s yet to come. That gathering in Alabama a year ago gave me renewed purpose, and now more than ever I see how precious and important that is.

Be well; take care; keep going.