Last night, I made a simple request on X. I asked if anybody visiting Arlington National Cemetery for Memorial Day would stop by Alan’s grave and leave a photo for our family. What happened next honestly caught me off guard. By this afternoon, dozens of Americans from all walks of life had made the walk to Section 60 to visit SSG Alan W. Shaw. Veterans. Families. Complete strangers. People who had never met Alan, but chose to honor him anyway. For one day on social media, people put aside the constant noise and negativity and came together for something bigger than themselves. My notifications filled with photos, kind messages, prayers, and stories from people honoring not just Alan, but so many of our fallen heroes. I don’t think people fully understand what moments like this mean to Gold Star families. The fear is never just losing them. It’s losing them slowly over time as the world moves on and fewer people remember their name. But today showed me that Alan will never be forgotten. After years of watching social media reward some of the worst parts of humanity, today gave me a reminder that the good is still out there too. Thank you to every single person who stopped by to visit Alan today, said his name, shared his story, or took a moment to honor the fallen. This right here is the America Alan knew and loved enough to fight and die for. And today, y’all showed us all that it’s still here and it’s still worth fighting for. 🇺🇸

The groom surprised the bride by having her students with Down syndrome be the ring bearers.. it’s to die for 😘

Before you scroll, remember this: you are a warrior. Comment “still smiling” if you feel it. 💛 #StillSmiling #AndyGrammer #KeepSmiling #PositiveVibes #SmileEveryday

CS Lewis understood

Thank you everyone for your kind words. It was an honor to sing The National Anthem. I wrote the arrangement in a very specific way to honor Whitney Houston- I hope that was heard. Thank you to the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, the Sainted Choir, the Color of Noize Orchestra, Steve Hackman, and Kenny G for joining me on stage. And thank you Adam Blackstone for writing such a beautiful choir part. I love music so much.

Last night, after learning of the passing of Brad Arnold, 47, the frontman and lyricist of Three Doors Down, I found myself lying in bed with the lights off, thinking about what he meant to me. I was in my very early twenties. I was a U.S. Marine, stationed in Okinawa, Japan. And when Here Without You was released, I was going through one of the hardest seasons of my life. At night, I listened to that song quietly in the barracks. I let myself feel everything I’d been holding in. I cried the kind of tears that actually move something through you, the kind that leave you lighter afterward. That’s when it hit me how music really works. We say music is universal, and it is, but not because everyone likes the same songs. It’s universal because you don’t need explanation or permission for it to reach you. You don’t even have to fully understand the words. Like opera, it carries emotion straight past language and into the body. Music becomes an invisible presence in our lives. It sits with us when things feel too heavy or too deep to explain. Sitting alone in a car after a breakup, rain tapping against the windows. The volume either turned all the way up or barely there at all. Moments where life feels overwhelming, but the music understands anyway. And the beautiful thing about music is this, it doesn’t care if you’re healthy. It doesn’t care if you’re chronically ill, chronically pained, disabled, or exhausted. When the body takes things from us, music doesn’t. It lets us visit the dreams we never got to fulfill. It carries us back to memories of who we were when we felt vibrant and strong. It holds our milestones too, first loves, weddings, long drives, quiet nights we didn’t realize would matter so much. Music is something we can always turn to when life comes down hard on us. And we have an entire palette to choose from, different genres for different seasons, different wounds, different moments we’re trying to survive. That’s why some losses hit deeper than we expect. Because certain voices weren’t just entertainment, they lived with us. They helped shape who we became in moments we survived quietly. And when a voice like that is gone, we don’t only feel the loss publicly. We feel it in the quiet place we used to turn to when nothing else could hold us.

On World Cancer Day we hold in our hearts the patients, families, and caregivers impacted by a cancer diagnosis, the medical teams providing their care, and researchers around the world dedicated to finding a cure.

Today is National Trip Planning Day! Have fun & make memories while connecting with new & favorite places! Travel between June 1st & July 12th & you can help add a destination to our Kendall's Challenge map. Ready. Set. Go. "No matter how far we go our love goes further."

Happy Friday. Rest up this weekend—you earned it. 🌱

A mom has installed a "hug bell" in the living room of her house, and whoever needs it at home presses this bell to fulfill their need for a hug