Finding Warmth in the Cold: A Commentary on Resilience, Home, and Defiant Joy

By Maatii Sabaa

In a world saturated with curated perfection, a birthday post from Minnesota activist and community figure Najat-Sakayyee Hamza offered something more substantive: a masterclass in nuanced resilience. Her message, shared on her birthday, was not a simple scroll-past celebration. It was a layered reflection on holding personal joy and communal concern in each hand, and finding the unique strength of home in a seemingly inhospitable climate.

The opening – “Another year around the sun, alhamdulillah” – grounds the moment in gratitude, a spiritual acknowledgement of life’s journey. The tease of “exciting news” regarding personal growth is the kind of forward-looking energy that fuels us. But Hamza immediately pivots, refusing to let her personal milestone exist in a vacuum. She names the elephant in the room: “the current situation in our country and state,” a veiled but clear reference to the political tensions and divisions that grip both Minnesota and the nation. In doing so, she elevates her message from the personal to the communal.

This is where her insight deepens. “We cannot allow them to steal our joy & happiness,” she declares. This is not naïve optimism; it is a strategic, defiant act. In an age where anxiety is a default setting, choosing joy becomes a radical form of resistance. Her definition of resilience is poetic and powerful: “standing still in face of the storm and coming out of it better.” It’s not about avoiding the storm, nor being blindly battered by it. It’s about a rooted, unwavering presence that allows for transformation.

Then, she turns to her love letter to Minnesota. It’s a rebuttal to the perennial question posed to those in the Upper Midwest: “Why would you stay in such a cold place?” Her answer transcends climate. “There is a warmth to Minnesota only we know & experience,” she writes, “not even harsh winters can defeat.” This “warmth” is the secret ingredient. It’s not the temperature; it’s the tangible sense of community, the shared grit, the unspoken understanding between neighbors who shovel each other’s driveways and show up for each other in crises. It’s the #MinnesotaStrong ethos—a toughness forged in blizzards that translates into civic solidarity.

Hamza’s final note, “We know, this too shall pass & we will overcome it,” applies as much to a personal struggle, a political winter, or an actual February freeze. It’s the quiet, collective faith of a people accustomed to long winters but utterly confident in the eventual spring.

Najat-Sakayyee Hamza’s birthday reflection is more than a personal update. It’s a micro-manifesto for our times. It argues that true strength lies in the ability to acknowledge darkness while kindling a personal light, to feel the bite of the cold while cherishing the profound warmth of community. In celebrating her own journey, she inadvertently charted a map for communal perseverance: find your anchor in gratitude, defend your joy as an act of will, and draw your warmth from the people around you. That’s a wisdom worth celebrating, in any season.