I was driving to the hospital when these words from Margaret Atwood flowed out of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio:

"A word

after a word

after a word

is power."

Three words.

Subject, verb, object. Or something else. 

Trees catch fire. The Earth warms. Winter arrived timidly. Birds fly home. Babies need food. 

Why this moment? Against all odds. Hope never dies. Will you help? What's your name? Can we try?

If not now...everything everywhere all at once. Simultaneously. Are there limits?

I love you.

Three words can change a mood, change a mind, change a motion. A different emotion can catch fire. Light a candle. Inspire another to change of heart, of action, of word.

I love you.

To quote another favorite author, Ursula K. Le Guin: "Only in silence the word, only in dark the light, only in dying life: bright the hawk's flight on the empty sky."

Against now five years of silence, I write a word, after a word, after a word. In hope. To try and help. Myself and maybe others. By committing, on paper, or out loud, or in pixels, as it were. To myself, to my sons, to my wife, to my parents and siblings and friends, to my patients, to my community, to the world:

I love you.

And from Edward R. Murrow: Good night, and good luck.