Welcome to The Light, your quiet hour for reflection.
Science is quietly reminding us that joy may be medicine. A new study suggests that recreational sports like handball and soccer build stronger bones than weightlifting alone. Something about the unpredictable, social nature of play seems to awaken the body in ways that solitary effort cannot.
From the body, we move to belonging and its boundaries. World tennis number one Aryna Sabalenka has voiced support for the Women's Tennis Association's new requirement that players undergo gender verification before competing. It is a moment that asks us, not simply, what is fairness, but who gets to define it, and at what human cost.
And then there is grief, and what people reach for inside it. After a shooting at one of its Idaho locations claimed an employee's life, In-N-Out's chief executive urged her workers to turn toward God. Whatever one believes, there is something worth sitting with here — the instinct, in the face of senseless loss, to reach for something larger than the wound.
That is this hour's reflection. Carry the light gently.
