10/11/2026
Keep Your Head Above Water
Tonight, part of our California coast is watching the ocean come to the door. Waves from Tropical Storm Rachel have pushed into streets and homes in Newport Beach and Long Beach, and families are spending this evening cleaning up and bracing for more. My heart is with every one of them.
It is also World Mental Health Day, and I can't help noticing how much the two have in common. Some storms you can see on the news. Others roll in quietly, inside a person, and no one else knows the water is rising.
Whichever kind you are weathering tonight, here is what I know about staying afloat:
Hope is the lighthouse. It doesn't calm the sea. It simply tells you the shore is still there, even when you can't see it.
Tenacity is the hand that keeps hold of the line. Not graceful, not pretty. Just refusing to let go for one more minute, and then one more.
Endurance is the tide's own lesson. What rushes in will, in time, go back out. You don't have to outlast the whole storm tonight. Only this hour.
Grace, the virtue we forget, is letting someone else pull you into the boat.
Because that is the part no one should do alone. If the water feels too high, reach out. Call the friend. Text the neighbor. Say the true thing out loud: "I'm not okay." If there is no one close, there are people waiting to answer. Call or text 988, any hour, day or night. If the storm in front of you is the literal kind, dial 211 to find local shelter and help.
And if you are on dry ground tonight, be the lighthouse. Check on someone. A simple "thinking of you" can be the rope someone grabs.
Hold on. Reach out. Keep your head above water, together. 💛
