May: Choosing Hope in a Fallen World

February may be known as the month of hearts, but in Minnesota, May is when the bleeding hearts bloom. My mother loved bleeding heart flowers. She planted them around her yard, where each spring they would quietly return — delicate pink hearts hanging from curved stems as if nature itself understood both love and sorrow can exist together. As a child, I remember touching their blooms and thinking how fragile they are, yet they came back stronger than the freezing Midwest winter.

From the desert where I live, I can still see bleeding hearts blooming in Minnesota's May, and I think of my mom. I think of the tenderness she had for flowers, planting them around the pain she endured throughout her life. Poking seeds in the dirt and believing something good would follow the effort. Bleeding Heart Flowers are a reminder to me that even wounded hearts can still bloom and light the world. April has passed, but did you know it was Child Abuse Awareness Month? The truth is, every single day should be abuse-prevention day. Our lives should revolve around preventing abuse. One of the reasons I write books about victims overcoming a bully, is because I was pushed around a lot in my life and it took many years to learn how not to fall down.

Although I came out from it, children should never have to understand what abuse is. Infants, toddlers, and little ones who cannot yet speak for themselves should never have to endure harm they cannot explain. They deserve protection before damage is done. They deserve adults willing to stand between them and evil. And the people trying to protect them deserve laws that support them—not systems that make it easier for abusers to continue.

May is here, but I am still thinking about my brother's passing in April. My brother was an abuser since middle school and in the end, he tortured our elderly mother for nearly a decade before she finally died at 82 years old after the state of Minnesota removed her from his control. During those years, I tried to get help for her. I tried to get intervention while he drained her bank accounts, destroyed her home, and held her hostage inside the very place that should have been her refuge.

At one point, Mom was forced to sleep on a dog bed behind my father’s recliner because my brother had taken over the space. I reported what was happening, but was told something I will never forget:

“If she’s not crying out, she’s consenting.”

How many vulnerable children and adults never cry out because they are afraid? Because they are manipulated? Because they are coerced, isolated, confused, dependent, elderly, disabled, or too young to understand what is happening to them?

We live in a fallen world, there is no argument about that! Sometimes I wonder if it has fallen even further than God intended. There are moments when the darkness feels overwhelming. Moments when systems fail the innocent. Moments when evil hides behind silence.

But even so—there is still hope.

Hope to do better. Hope to make better. Hope to insist on better. My youngest daughter and I have made it part of our life’s pursuit to advocate for children and the elderly and vulnerable who cannot always advocate for themselves. How can an elderly person who has no strength to walk out their door get the help they need? Or how can an infant or toddler ask to be protected when they don't even know what they need to be protected from? We want to help create a world where the protectors are heard early, where warning signs are taken seriously, and where intervention happens before tragedy becomes someone’s story.

Can you hear the calling? God's calling to care for the vulnerable, to protect the innocent, and take care of people. Not only through words, but through small actions. Change does not always begin with giant platforms or political power. Sometimes it begins with small acts of compassion and courage. A small voice. A hand up.

Maybe today that means helping someone reach a can of peaches at Walmart because they cannot reach it themselves. Maybe it means bringing a meal to someone recovering from surgery. Maybe it means checking on an elderly neighbor who rarely leaves their house, or a new mom who just got home. Maybe it means speaking up when something feels wrong. Or maybe it means getting involved with lawmakers and advocating for stronger protections for children, elderly adults, and victims of abuse. Did you know, that there are people in government who advocate for the abusers? Write to your Representatives and ask how you can help. Find out who you are voting for and educate others.

Small acts matter.

Kindness matters.

Prevention matters.

People who are willing to stand up for the vulnerable matter more than they know.

So this May, I am calling for action. Not because the world needs improvement, but because goodness still exists within it. Because God still works through people willing to do the work. And because every act of protection, compassion, and courage plants seeds for a better world than the one we inherited. Seeds that will bloom in good time and produce something we can enjoy.