A champion of common miracles

My friend, Bob, has one of the most compassionate hearts I know. He’s a therapist and a writer. His core message is that what most of us ordinary people achieve on any ordinary day is indeed a miracle. I have seen him be a champion for a mother, a father, a farmer’s wife – pointing out the long list of things they do that will never be acknowledged as heroic yet certainly rise to that level as they tend to and care for others. Bob, who has a gift for pointing out how hard we can be on ourselves, shared this advice from Mary Oliver: “You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.” Next time you’re beating yourself up (…or down), stop. Stop. Be kind to yourself. Just be. Listen to and follow the calling of your heart. It is enough. More than enough.