It’s the wee hours of the morning and I’ve been up listening to the thunder and lightning, rain and hail pounding against the windows. I’m living further south right now, in a lovely little rental house, where storms like this are frequent. In the basement, the floor is sloped towards a drain in the center and the foundation is deliberately a little bit porous, so when the ground is soaked the water can easily flow through.

This has given me flashbacks to a Habitat for Humanity trip years ago in Tajikistan, where we spent many days digging and placing huge rocks and mixing cement for a foundation that was two feet thick. In Tajikistan, the winters are long and brutal. If your foundation is porous there, your whole house will fail. Yet on another build in Papua New Guinea, the home was floating in the air, barely touching the earth, so that the floods could swoosh underneath.

Dear ones, so many challenges arise due to our foundations – and not just with the building inspectors. We’re bendy at times when a stronger backbone would keep things in order. We’re rigid at times when just a little flex would allow things to flow with ease.

When the next tempest stirs, let’s pause and ask, which foundation is needed now? Unlike our houses, we have more than one option, and can choose the best mix for each situation, from concrete to bamboo.

Friends, with the right foundations, we can withstand all kinds of storms.

*  The photo above shows how to find the bakery in Tajikistan!

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A perfect “welcome back” gift

If you find yourself wanting to reflect on this past year, or to contemplate better times to come, we hope you might consider turning to Month of Sundays, which can be found at all of your favorite booksellers. One newly vaccinated friend recently mentioned that she’s bought a stack of books to gift as she begins to reconnect with loved ones who have been apart, as a way to say, “welcome back.”

Thank you to those who have supported this endeavor to date, where proceeds have allowed us to give more generously than usual to some of the most vital nonprofits around.  We designed the book to be evergreen, and hope it will bring comfort and connection through times of ease and times of challenge alike.