I often say Flourish, flourishing, bounty, bountiful, especially when I talk about God's bountiful gifts from earth, vine, and tree that help community and the land itself flourish, that make sacraments possible. You probably know about musical flourishes? Flourish is beyond bud, beyond blossom, beyond bloom. Flourish may be the best summer word! Flourish is bountiful presence that changes any status quo.

Many many of us have been asking how people, institutions, and organizations of a country can flourish. We look to revive to sustain both its natural infrastructure and its humanly built one. I yearn for the city to flourish, to come alive with hope. I ache for threatened wild places and rural outposts. What can we do to help restore and then maintain the health and integrity of everything we rely on that in turn relies on us?