“You know?  I’m just not feeling the way I should be feeling at Christmas time this year.  I can see it all around me, but I’m not connected to it at all.”

Joe’s tone of voice caught my attention, and I looked across the restaurant table at him.  For my heartful, sweet and deeply optimistic partner, this was the closest he’s been to seeming depressed.  Although Christmas means very different things to each of us, I, too, was struggling to feel connected—not just to the season, but to my own sense of openness and engagement with the world.  I nodded in silent agreement, feeling my mood slip further.

And in that moment, when I dipped my toe into the pool of despair on whose banks I’d been standing since the presidential election, my heart responded with inspired resistance.