Chardi kala was woven into Sikh scriptures and our vernacular, commonly translated as “relentless optimism.” But what I witnessed in Oak Creek and what I was learning from this family was different from optimism. This was not about the future at all. This was about a state of being in the present moment, as if now is all there is. Now and now and now. It is moving from Moment with a capital M to Moment with a capital M. This is a state of joyfulness inside the struggle—an energy that keeps us in motion, a breathing that keeps us laboring, even inside the pain of labor.
