No More Sorrow

Two funerals per month seems to be my current average. With the recent loss of my aunt, I remain thankful to still have both parents; each the last living sibling in their families. Today, the anniversary of the killing of George Floyd and the very recent killing of innocents at the Uvalde elementary school have left me once again feeling helpless in a world where racism and hatred run rampant.

Today’s episode of The Daily by the New York Times brought back something to my attention I had not thought about in a while, the fact that there are conspiracy theorists who will prey on the grieving families by accusing them of fabricating the entire incident for political gain. I found myself growing only angrier as I researched history on Holocaust deniers and deniers of the Sandy Hook tragedy in attempts to come up with a well-researched reflection on today’s podcast. I couldn’t do it. When I could no longer concentrate, or see through tears, I decided to rely on the blogosphere to see how my fellow bloggers were coping today:

Knit Librarian posted a poem on her page by rev. Luke Stevens-Royer, reminding us we, ourselves, are responsible for perpetuating violence and we must also “do the work….(to)study war no more.”

Chateau Cherie  has a blog dedicated to anti-bullying; she dedicated today's post to consequences of school bullying.  There have been some reports that the shooter in Uvalde was a victim of bullying.  I'm sure we will see, or hear more details on this in the near future.

Psychologist Mimi very simply stated we should all “Do Better.”

JanetThomas posted “I feel so empty. I have nothing left inside.”

And of course, there were many, many posts advocating for, or against gun control and I just can’t tolerate that right now. Yes, the first thing that comes to my mind is a teenager should not have access to automatic weapons. It’s clear on which side of the gun control debate, I reside. But today, my heart is simply heavy for those families who were not able to bring their children home, last night. Most bloggers seemed to be sticking to their blogging themes for now, probably still reflecting on such tragedies as I have been.

Very few things are certain in life. We may never understand why people do bad things or why bad things happen to innocent people. But, no matter how you feel about religion, there is undeniable comfort in believing in life after death, and in my personal opinion, there is nothing more uplifting than a good gospel song. May is also the death anniversary of one of my good friends. We sang in a mixed quartet together and the very first song we performed together was this one. Hope it brings you as much comfort as it brings me.

Note: Featured image is my own and one of the last photos taken with my dear quartet friend who later died of pulmonary fibrosis, a disease in which there is still no cure and a disease that has a strong prevalence in my husband’s family.