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This quote nestled itself into my heart yesterday, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.
My sixth-floor apartment desk looks out over the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District.
Behind me is the ever-present Mississippi River, the lifeblood of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Each day, I see buses drive by. I watch neighbors wiping the snow off their cars. I hear laughter on the streets. I watch families walking to the park. I can see friends and families stopping for a meal at the restaurant on the corner. There are colorful beehives that catch my eye and remind me to get up and make a cup of tea. I can count the rooftops and know that inside are people living their lives, just like me…who didn’t ask for the pain, grief, suffering, and heartache that Minnesotans (and people all over the United States) are feeling as we turn the corner into a new year of 2026.
The idea of a fresh, new year was eclipsed by the sad, achingly awful fact that the first homicide recorded in Minneapolis this new year was the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent on January 7, 2026.
We don’t know the results of the ongoing investigation, and frankly, we don’t know if we’ll be able to trust them. But we know that our hearts hurt. We are grieving, as we have grieved so often in the last five years in Minnesota. We’ve been hit hard.
And that is perhaps why the quote hit me so hard as it did.
“One of the most important things you can do on this earth is to let people know they are not alone.” ~ Shannon L. Alder
We are not alone.
None of us are alone.
And we must remind our friends, our family, our neighbors, and strangers of this because it will help us heal like only community can.
And so, this is one thing we can actually do when tragedy strikes and we feel helpless.
We have an ache in our bones to just do something. To do anything to help the situation, but often we don’t know what that could be. We can protest and we can support local businesses and we can call our politicians, and we can be an intentional activist. But what about the moments in-between? The liminal spaces when we’re living life.
At the grocery store.
Making dinner.
Getting gas.
Answering a text.
Writing an email.
Walking by someone in the hall, or on the street.
Now, more than ever, we can be kind.
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Be kind, reach out to those who need it—and right now, that’s all of us. Let someone know they’re not alone.
Life is tough right now. For everyone, everywhere. For those who believe in human rights and in the power of the people to make a difference. For folks with tender hearts. For those who believe in democracy. For yourself, for your family, for your neighbors, for the people in the car next to you on the highway, and for the person delivering your mail, for the cashier ringing up your groceries, and the pizza delivery person, and the immigrant-owned restaurant down the street, and the activists, and the organizers, and the politicians, and the children—oh, the children.
Take a breath. Look them in the eye. And act a little kinder than you need to, because you don’t know what a difference it might make to their day…or to yours, to know that you were the light that burned bright when there was darkness and mistrust all around.
~
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