I uploaded this video last week to social media. It was one of those awesome moments when I suddenly felt a lot of clarity around the role technology could play in our lives if we collectively decide to make it so. The self- and community-discipline required to make it a tool of connection instead of polarization is definitely a topic worth discussing anyway. It’s so easy to vilify technology or lament the ways it is taking over our lives, but it’s also opening doors and windows of collaboration and communication, and that is equally beautiful to behold.

After I posted this video to facebook, my cousin added a comment. My mom had eight siblings so I have A LOT of cousins. This particular cousin lives in Arizona, and if not for social media, it would be very hard for us to keep track of each other. In his comment, he related a story about his mother gifting him wind chimes before she passed away. The wind chimes now hang in a big tree in his yard. In the summer, the leaves muffle their ringing, but when the tree drops her leaves, the music of the chimes reemerges, and that music is a beautiful reminder of his beloved mother.

I’ll tell you what, friends, that story—and the fact that he was able to share it with me as effortlessly as if we’d been sitting in his yard listening to the same tree rustling in the evening breeze—just…breaks me in the best possible way. As we navigate all the systems and institutions that are collapsing or undergoing radical transformation with the advent of so much innovation, the gift of a simple story about a relative or old friend, the symphony of the flickering sunset against the last of the autumn leaves, the brand new baby we may not get to hold but still cherish, these things are still just as precious, just as present, and just as important to share with each other. Celebrating that needs to be part of the map we use as we move into the uncertain future, keeping joy and belonging as the guideposts. We may not know where we are going, but I’m beginning to believe that is how we will find the way…

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