With 24/7 this and 24/7 that, instant messages and rapid engagement, voicemail and text and Twitter feeds and nothing ever unplugged, it’s as if the heartbeat of America is always racing now, stimulated by more currents and crosscurrents of electric impulses than anyone who came before us could have imagined.

That’s not a lament, just an observation that comes into sharper focus during those times when, traditionally, the world might have slowed down a bit, when we might have caught our breath and counted our blessings.

There are so many blessings to count, so many so easily taken for granted, such as amber waves of grain and purple mountain majesty, the Bill of Rights and the peaceful transfer of power, a constitution that both provides for majority rule and guards the rights of the minority. There are our traditions of faith and family, of liberty and new beginnings, the institutions of civil society, the ideas and principles on which free people might sustain themselves and a nation. There are the myriad ways by which individuals and communities bind wounds and comfort the afflicted and create hope for a better day.

May the blessings of the season be upon you, and may time for a deep breath or two be among them.

— St. Paul Pioneer Press, Dec. 26