Thursday, September 08, 2005

Thinking

I’ve been thinking a lot this week.
I’ve been thinking about my favorite time of the day and how lucky I am to have a favorite time of day.  I love sitting on the bus, early in the morning, and watching the sun rise over the ship canal on my way to work.  Watching the rowers, early boaters, work their way to where ever they are going.  The sun rises, filling the sky with beautiful colors, shared of orange tinged with pink against the blue sky. 
I’ve been avoiding the television, especially the news.  It hurts, somewhere deep inside, it hurts my soul to know that thousands of people may be dead and hundreds of thousands have lost their homes.  Regardless of what I feel about the government, the people in charge, the people who chose to stay, the people who couldn’t leave, none of that really matters.  The enormousness of the tragedy fills my soul with a sadness that is hard to shake.  But shake it I must, for life goes on regardless.  It simply does.  These tragedies are tests of our courage, our unshakable need as a country to stay alive and move on.  As humans we are constantly tested, sometimes in little ways, sometimes in huge life shattering ways.  We have to do what we have always done.  Pick ourselves up and try to move on. 
Knowing, of course, that it is okay to hurt, it is okay to grieve, and it is okay to feel the sadness that comes with any tragedy.