As I’m writing this, Kansas has confirmed its 15 th case of the novel coronavirus and our teams have switched to telecommuting for the foreseeable future. At the same time, our public health and healthcare partners are working tirelessly to protect our families, friends, and neighbors – some bravely putting themselves in harm’s way to keep others safe. This also likely means they aren’t the most popular people in our communities as we are asked to institute “social distancing” and stay away...

Vanessa, Thank you for this beautiful reminder that our current challenges are golden opportunities to demonstrate what truly matters. As Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote, "Beauty will save the world." Kindness is a necessary element of that tremendous work.

Today is World Kindness Day. A global day that promotes the importance of being kind to each other, to yourself, and to the world. Goodness knows, it seems like we don't see or hear much kindness right now. Our world seems to be full of fear, anxiety, and doubt (also read as "survival" or "self-protection"). I've spent most of the last 6 months talking to partners across the state about ways to practice more compassion with ourselves and in our organizations and one thing that I hear pretty...