02/24/2026
Yesterday (2.23.26) we honored, remembered, and celebrated Colin’s heavenversary. A favorite writer & poet of his was Wendell Berry who wrote in his book, The Unsettling of America, “there is much good work to be done by every one of us, and we must begin to do it. The name of our proper connection to the Earth is good work for good work involves much giving of honor. It honors the source of its material. It honors the place where it is done. It honors the art by which it is done. It honors the thing that it makes & the user of the thing. The old and honorable idea of vocation is simply that we each are called by God or by our gifts or by our preference to a kind of good work for which we are particularly fitted… Good work is our joy and salvation. “
Restoring Hope was created out of a deep desire to continue to be all the things we both so loved and miss about Colin and all the joy he brought to our lives and those he served. We believe that how we deliver love is in essence that good work. It’s not just about building or planting libraries, but is equally about honoring too those who we’re planting seeds with and who we are ultimately planting them for.
I came across a tattered well read book of Colin’s titled The Power of Kindness: the unexpected benefits of leading a compassionate life. It still has ear marked a sticky note that he had written. “How can we accomplish this in our new space -please read” and then he gave the pages. I’m not sure who at the Courthouse he had shared this with, but it was a chapter on “Warmth”. Of the many passages he had marked these two stuck out and how deeply and resolute he was in the kind of service he and his team were committed to providing to those who entered in into juvenile court. “….mostly we need someone to talk to , someone who knows and appreciates us. Someone who cares about us. It is the capacity to enter and to let enter to get to know, and to be known. Warmth is the quality we see in someone’s eyes, hear in their voice or sense in the way they greet us. It is at the heart of kindness. It is to be without fear. In giving our warmth - and so too our vital presence, our positive, nonjudgmental attitude, our heart – we can bring into the lives of those near to us vital sometimes extraordinary changes. And we, too do not remain unchanged.”
Colin‘s love wasn’t a flicker but a BLAZE. It lit up corners of your life you didn’t even know where dim. It turned ordinary moments into magic. The darkness is heavy because we knew the warmth, the brilliance, the refuge. You don’t just miss him but all the ways he illuminated the world around him. Our grief is the proof of that brilliance. Proof that our lives were lit up in ways too extraordinary to ever forget. Colin‘s love remains. Everywhere. In all the love that he so generously gave, and most certainly in all the good he left behind. May we have that same kind of courage and conviction he had to keep deliberately and intentionally choosing to come together to build deep communities of belonging and hope that transcends injustice and builds stronger children and communities. May we all continue to be the helpers to ‘do good work anyway,’ - in whatever way we can or or are called upon to act. And may we never, ever underestimate how powerful the smallest act of love and kindness can be to turn someone’s world around.
❤️Jen
