Can you inspire or uplift up even one person?

We've now hit one full year of operating the Friends Here & Now website and newsletter. I shared some data about that first year (subscribers, other readers and responses) with our team and asked: "What should we do from here? Keep doing what we're doing? Keep doing it but with some changes? Do something entirely different? Stop?"

The answer I got from one of my colleagues stopped me cold: "At this point if we can inspire or uplift even one person it is worth it to me in these times."

Because that's the point. We're not the people who are going to do anything massive, whether in organizing a demonstration or generating publicity or making contributions to campaigns. We're just folks like you, horrified and saddened by what's being done to our democracy and wishing we could do more.

We've only done three things in this year:

1. Made it a little easier for some people to get good information.
2. Made it a little easier for some people to take action.
3. Given a few people a little more reason to hope and a little less reason to despair.

That third one is probably the most important, we're coming to realize. From the beginning, our stated purpose was: "to help people stay informed and take action to protect our democracy." But the driving force was looking around and seeing how many of our friends felt "helpless and hopeless" in the face of the attacks on democracy, constitutional rights for all and the rule of law. And little did we know how much worse it would get in the following year.

So here's our challenge to you: can you inspire and uplift one person? You know you have friends or family, in blue states or red states, who are feeling helpless and hopeless right now. Can you:

• Copy and paste this link to our "Signs of Hope" page, and send it to them in an email or text: https://www.friendshn.org/signs-of-hope/? or
• Click the "Share" button on this page to send them this post (it's up on the left if you're reading this in your browser, down at the bottom if you're reading the email newsletter)? or
• Copy and paste this link to our home page and send it to them https://www.friendshn.org? or
• Or... just reach out, in text or email or a phone call or a handwritten note or maybe even in person – in any way that works for you and them – and just ask how they're doing?

You just might inspire or uplift that one person. You might even find you've inspired and uplifted yourself in the process, which isn't a bad thing these days.

And as always: