After pausing the music and offering some direction to the sopranos, our choir director smiled and said, “I know you can do it.”
That’s when I saw something really beautiful:
I watched the body language of the sopranos as they immediately smiled back, clearly internalizing his words. Just one comment, but it came from someone they trust—someone who is funny, caring, genuine, and inviting them to create.
That moment sparked a larger thought for me about encouragement, connection, and mirroring.
No one can define us—not any person or any group—and it should never be that way. No one should have the power to reduce us or tell us who we are.
— And yet —
I don’t believe any of us can truly know ourselves on the deeper levels without the encouragement, connection, and mirroring of others.
We need to see ourselves seen. That is how we know we are loved. That is how we come to recognize and trust our best attributes, gifts, and particularities. That is how we learn that we belong, even in moments of failure or mistake.
We need to give this gift to each other.
And I wonder, on a larger scale, is it possible to do this for whole groups of people? To offer encouragement, connection, and mirroring in ways that convey,
Hope is not a pipe dream…?
Change is possible…?
We have the attributes, gifts, and particularities to build a better, safer, more loving world…?
Smuggling Grace 