“Love like your life depends on it, because it does.”
~Michael Franti, “Speaking of Tongues” (Stay Human 2001)
Tenderness is needed these days, tenderness and grace, tenderness and grace and a whole lotta love — the “I see you” love of friends, the wild love of newlyweds, the struggling love of self-acceptance, the rooted love of couples, the nurturing love of parents & aunties & uncles & grandparents, the tentative love between strangers, the heartbroken love of Mother Earth. We need tenderness and grace and love and — when those feel far off — we need stories of tenderness and grace and love to remind us of their rich blessings.
Some lovely stories of tenderness & grace have been shared around our blogring in recent days:
+ House of Grace delights in the antics of puffins spotted in Iceland
+ writing as jo(e) observes the many ways we keep in touched with loved ones
+ Life, Gratitude, Faith, & Passion celebrates a wedding anniversary and the “secret” of love over time
+ Talk with the Preacher takes a critical eye to our love of ogling scandals and to the crisis of sexual assault; truth-telling is a type of tenderness and love that is needed in the world too
+ ministryandmotherhood writes about losing and loving a family member who has dementia
Where is love/Love showing up in your life, gals & pals? Where are you making an effort to be tender — with others and with yourself? How is grace/Grace surprising you each day? Share your witness, your story, and/or a link to something you’ve written in the comments below, and show your appreciation to these bloggers by offering a comment on their posts too!
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Rachel G. Hackenberg is a United Church of Christ (US) minister, soccer mom, blogger, and author. Her latest book is Sacred Pause: A Creative Retreat for the Word-weary Christian.
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RevGalBlogPals encourages you to share our blog posts via email or social media. We do not grant permission to cut-and-paste prayers and articles without a link back. For permission to use material in paper publications, please email revgalblogpals at gmail dot com.
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RevGalBlogPals 
When I saw the title of your blog post I thought of one of my all time favourite movies, Shrek, in which donkey (Eddie Murphy) sings ‘Try a little Tenderness’. On a more serious note, thank you for the links in your post.
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