Totally random things I’ve seen recently that lift my spirits (in no particular order):

• Watching young teens waiting on customers at their family’s market stand, carefully counting out change (yes, cash is still king at the farmer’s market) and occasionally glancing back at the adults to make sure they’re doing everything correctly.

• The beaming face of a neurodiverse young woman getting a manicure at the nail salon. She was thrilled with her green and white nails, showing them off to everyone. Time and again, I have seen the professionals who work there treat their customers, most of whom do not look like them or speak their language, with kindness and grace.

• A concert given by family members who are professional musicians. They did a recital together at the retirement community where their mother lives. It took a lot of planning and practice but the music was beautiful, the audience delighted, and it was an incredible gift to their mother whose life has become increasingly limited due to the infirmities of age.

• The young caregiver who brought their mother to the concert, checked her blood pressure, and then gave her a big hug.

• A little girl in my neighborhood was out riding her bike when I drove up the street. Instead of riding willy-nilly all over the street while I waited (and we’ve had that with some former neighbors’ kids), she politely moved aside and motioned for me to pull into my driveway while she waited. What a sweetheart.

• Good friends who sat through a baseball game in 95 degree heat because that’s what my husband wanted to do for his birthday. The Orioles were terrible, and we were all hot, sweaty, and miserable, but it gave us one more story to tell and memory to cherish.

None of these experiences is life-changing, (although maybe they are in some ways.) They won’t completely erase the constant anxiety gradually ramping into panic that I feel about what is happening in this country. But they remind me that not all of us, not even the majority of us, spew vitriol and hatred and drive around with obscene bumper stickers plastered all over our vehicle. Not all of us, not even the majority of us, treat those who look, speak, or live differently than we do with cruelty and disparagement. Not all of us, not even the majority of us, believe that gun control laws will limit our ability to hunt or protect our homes and families. Not all of us, not even the majority of us, believe that accumulating wealth and power is more important than caring for our fellow humans and for the earth.

Not all of us, not even the majority of us, think that our religious beliefs should be forced upon others.

I don’t know how this is all going to play out. I hope and pray that decency and adherence to the laws of our democracy will prevail but I'm beginning to have my doubts. I have recently discovered the word “catastrophize,” and that describes my mental state way too often.  So I look for hope wherever I can find it— whether it’s a manicure making someone happy, or a brother and sister playing four-hand piano pieces while their 90-something mother looks on with pride.