A colleague of mine once told me she was having a terrible week—one of those “everything is too much” stretches. She wasn’t sleeping well, her projects were overwhelming, and she felt invisible in her own work.

Then someone she barely knew sent a simple email:“I saw what you shared last week. It really helped me. Thank you.”

She cried reading it. Not because it solved anything, but because it reminded her that she mattered, that her work was landing somewhere, with someone.

Several people have messaged me about these short episodes and told me that it helped them on a particularly tough day, and it means the world to me that a short message could find someone when they needed to hear it. 

Hope doesn’t always come from inside; sometimes it arrives through other people. A word, a kindness, a recognition. 

And here’s the thing: you can be that spark for someone else.You can send the email.You can give the compliment.You can acknowledge the thing someone is doing well.

Today, let hope move in both directions—receive it, and pass it on.