As we gathered today to celebrate Nowruz... 

As we gathered to celebrate warmth, revival, and rebirth during this moment of great calamity, this continued--and seemingly endless--cycle of global tragedy.... I found myself unwilling.

I asked how; perhaps more importantly, I asked why.

The answer appeared suddenly, unexpectedly, in verse:

To love in a war-time is
(in spite of everything) to wear earrings,
so that holes
don't disappear

--Kateryna Kalytko

Why? To ensure, I suppose, that we don't forget how.

On this first day of spring--on this "new day"--and on every day thereafter, I wish nothing but peace. I wish only peace. All else will follow.

نوروزتون مبارک،‌ عزیزان من