As you start this week, may you find bravery to do the hard things on your list. May you recognize the clarion call in your life, and the humble realization that to do what you’re called to do well, it means rolling up your sleeves and getting your arm into it.

May you not be discouraged when this hard work goes unrecognized or slips through the cracks, as though it yielded no fruit. Remember that these small actions, done one day after another and another, give way to mountain-moving conditions. Think of the grains of sand that comprise the Sahara.

Keep your nose to the grindstone, and keep your eyes set on things above. And remember, if your kitchen counter wiping gets no “likes” or your words of wisdom espoused to your children are never retweeted, they DO matter. Their absence would leave a hole in your home. You matter.

And as you do those hard things on your list, may you find pleasure—surprising pleasure—in doing some of them. May you find a sliver of time to sit with a cup of tea and a book. And may you find the needed encouragement to wake up, once more, and do it all again.

Because you do matter.