“Everything is beautiful and I am so sad.” This first line from”Adrift,” a poem by Mark Nepo, poet, spiritual teacher and two-time cancer survivor, captures how I see the world these days. Between my sunrise walks in farmland and the news headlines, it is clear that beauty and sadness coexist. This does not mean, however, that the world does not open itself up to holiness.

Three hours after the photos in this post were taken on March 21, my partner, Adrienne, and I were at an Apple store picking up a new MacBook and Studio Display. My sunrise farmland walk had been filled with wonder and now sitting unboxed in my home office was computer equipment I didn’t know how to set up. My wonder dissipated. Fear and sadness descended. But I rallied, googled and researched Mac set-ups and a week later, everything was up and running. I surprised myself. The next step was streamlining this blog which Adrienne accomplished with expertise and patience over the weekend. Glitches and adjustments still must be made (unbelievably, email notifications still aren’t working consistently) and we appreciate your forbearance.

Challenging and intimidating technology. Turbulent and mean times. As I hoped above, “That does not mean, however, that the world does not open itself up to holiness.” One can see it in these post photos. One can also see it in the complete poem, “Adrift” by Mark Nepo:

Everything is beautiful and I am so sad.

This is how the heart makes a duet of

wonder and grief. The light spraying

through the lace of the fern is as delicate

as the fibers of memory forming their web

around the knot in my throat. The breeze

makes the birds move from branch to branch

as this ache makes me look for those I’ve lost

in the next room, in the next song, in the laugh

of the next stranger. In the very center, under

it all, what we have that no one can take

away and all that we’ve lost face each other.

It is there that I’m adrift, feeling punctured

by a holiness that exists inside everything.

I am so sad and everything is beautiful.

This is how the heart makes a duet of wonder and grief.

The featured photo at the top of this post was taken at 6:50 a.m., 3/21/26