There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow

On Remembering the Past and Choosing Hope for Tomorrow.

Some weeks feel heavier than others.

The headlines are louder. The conversations a little tighter. The future — which usually stretches out like an open road — can feel uncertain around the edges.

And yet, tomorrow still arrives.

For as long as I can remember, there has been a song that comes back to me in moments like this. It plays inside my head almost without invitation:

“There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow, shining at the end of every day . . . .”

The song was written by Richard and Robert Sherman — the Sherman Brothers — for the Carousel of Progress, first introduced at the 1964–1965 New York World’s Fair in New York City.

The fair carried a hopeful motto: “Peace Through Understanding.”

It is hard to imagine a more necessary phrase in any generation.

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A Year’s Worth of Little Good Things

As the year begins to slow down and we edge closer to Christmas, I have found myself thinking less about what was accomplished and more about what quietly mattered — the small moments, the kindnesses that did not make headlines but made days a little better.

A few evenings ago, Little Red Bear asked if he might stop by the Writing Pages for a few minutes to share some of the things that stayed with him this year. Not the grand events, but the everyday goodness he noticed along the way. I was glad to say yes — and this is his note.

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