It is a gift to be alive, and a fragmenting, anxious world can either numb this knowing or rouse it. As I think of the uncertain future my young daughter will face, I want her to step into her aliveness, to gather courage and live from a deep center, and like a tree with roots sunk deep into the ground, to stay standing when the storms come. I want this for myself too.

Elizabeth Oldfield uses the seven deadly sins to point toward the seven heavenly virtues.