Happy Martin Luther King Day, a day of service. Because DC is locked down, I imagine few people were able to participate downtown, which some of my friends have done in the past. A lot of nonprofits and private citizens have probably suffered for it this year, especially this year. I spent the in service to writing my latest book about creating DIY retreats. In turn the book will—I hope—serve its readers by providing tips for getting self-care through personal retreating.

Yesterday I set a pot of freshly made soup to cool on a trivet on the glass top of my table on the porch. When I returned to check it, a crack had formed part way across the table top. There was already a circular crack from when Hubby set a hot pan on the glass, no trivet, a few years ago. Now the crack was bigger. I set a second pot of soup on a trivet and came back later to find the crack had grown to the entire extent of the table.

No, I hadn’t put two and two together, the crack and the heat of the pan, because for several years I’ve been setting hot pots on a trivet on this table. I guess it reached a breaking point, like life as we’ve known it, cracking individuals, communities, and government structures. How do you fix a fractured world? MLK tried. We’re still trying.