"Barbara Kingsolver has written about her experience with taking in one beautiful thing every day during heartbreaking times. Inspired by Kingsolver, we introduce a practice of 'being with beauty' as a way of cultivating joy and gladdening your heart.

"How might you create a new habit of pausing and taking in beauty? In nature or the turning of a season? In art or music? In the faces of children playing? In sports? In a favorite poem or novel? In a bowl made by a local potter; a quilt, or a hand-knit scarf?

"Do you dwell in the exquisite architecture of an ant or a butterfly, in the brush strokes and layers of a painting? Can you open your senses so you begin to see or hear differently? Do you feel drawn to writing about your experience? To sketching or photographing? To playing an instrument? To writing lyrics or a song?

"Can you allow yourself to be a beginner, to dive in without judging your efforts? As you work with this practice, do you find you're able to carry grief with a little more lightness as you go about your day?"