Habari gani, good folk — and happy new year!
I hope everyone had a great celebration surrounded by people they loved. Or had a cozy night at home doing what you love. Or made the most of where you were when we crossed into this arbitrary, uncharted territory of 2026.
We close out Kwanzaa as we begin this new year, focused on the principle of imani, or faith. I, like many people, have a complicated relationship with that word. When you’ve seen the idea of faith be wielded as a weapon against your fellow beings, you’re forever wary of it.
But as thinking creatures, we need faith. Without it, we can’t see a way from the people we are, or the world we inhabit, to the people we know we can be. Without it, we can’t trust strangers in our midst. We have to believe the person crossing our path on the street, or with us on the subway, or sharing our public spaces — all of them want the same things we do: to live a joyful life. Without faith, there’s no reason to believe we can better our world at all. It’s essential if we’re really going to come through this struggle.
Faith is hard, especially now. There are vanishingly few safe bets when it comes to placing your faith, and if you live long enough at some point your faith will be tested severely, even broken. Mine was broken in 2016, and it feels like I lost a decade to numbing that despair. That spark has reignited, but I couldn’t tell you exactly when or how. I can’t tell you how long it might last before it goes out again. But for now, I have it, and that’s enough.
I do think that the more I engaged with the world around me and the people in it, the more I fell in love with the world again. The more people I make the intention to show up for, the more I want to be the kind of person who shows up for others. Even though I’m just out of the hole and I can’t see the whole shape of it, I think putting my faith in the people around me enabled me to find it again.
So this morning I’m thinking about all of you. (Again.) I’m so grateful for the communities I’m a part of, because they’re filled with such amazing people. I am continually reminded of the kindness, resilience, warmth and joy we all carry with us all the time. I choose to put faith in that when I see it, that there’s more of it out there, more than we see or know, just waiting to be discovered. There’s so much evidence to the contrary right now, and the disappointment can crush you if you let it. Believe me, I know.
That’s why I think it’s so important to look to the people right next to you for inspiration. Choose to build a community with those who make the world a better place simply by being in it. Encourage them. Help them thrive. Put your faith in them. Even if it doesn’t change the entire world, it changes us and our environment. The effect is more subtle, almost invisible, but it’s still real.
From the Desk of Jakebe T. Rabbit 