I have been feeling a lot of awe lately thinking about symbioses. You may not realize it, but you (and all other living beings) are literally being shaped by your microbes--those invisible critters living on and inside you, forming entire ecological systems in your body and acting as your invisible partner in everything you think "you" are and do. Breastmilk from your mother contained sugars that you couldn't digest, but your microbes needed in order to establish a healthy gut. Similar systems exist for plants, with microbes in plant roots converting nitrogen from the soil into a form the plant can use---we would not be alive without them! Whether we think about these examples or other more macroscopic ones, symbiosis is essential for all life. In fact you wouldn't be here breathing without your mitochondria---structures that generate energy within your cells which used to be bacteria about 3 billion years ago, but got "adopted" into the ancestral version of our cells. I have been thinking about this a lot, because like it or not, symbiosis is how nature gets things done! We are all in this together, interconnected, interdependent, and once we really SEE this with our hearts, it can inform how we act, how we live, how we think about ourselves and our place in the universe. I am seeing symbioses everywhere now--in the beautiful collaborations I have with my colleagues, in the kindspring family that adopts and nurtures budding love warriors, in my neighborhood, in every tree or blade of grass I see the tremendous interconnectedness and beauty of life. I am humbled and in awe of it all. With gratitude and hugs to all of you!