“A time to refrain from embracing,” from Ecclesiastes 3:5, signifies a season for caution, wisdom, and boundary-setting rather than intimate closeness. It indicates times of danger, grief, necessary independence (allowing growth), or emotional distance to avoid enabling, rather than a total cessation of affection.

That was all I could think about reading the news. Maybe because every day seems more confusing, a reality a little harsher and uncertain. It would be a mistake to call these days bad, but still problematic and uncertain on so many levels. And that sixty-five year old Pete Seeger song popularized by the Byrds sixty years ago is still pretty good as I catch the bus home.