I've been feeling distraught. I think that's the best way to describe it.
The events of late have made me yearn for a simpler time - as I'm sure many are. Lets not kid ourselves, there was still crime and violence in our day. Children were abducted, hate crimes occurred and people died. But as children we walked the streets without the fear of bombs and chemical warfare.
Today I logged into Facebook, my socially acceptable guilty pleasure and read a story about a guy who takes his elderly dog into a lake everyday to sooth his arthritis and provide him some comfort.
Then I read a story of a severely malnourished pup that was literally skin and bones and who was nursed back to health and is thriving today.
Then I read a quote by Gandhi reminding us to not lose faith in humanity, that a few dirty drops in an ocean does not pollute the entire sea.
As I'm sitting at my computer reading one story after another I realised that I'm crying. Yes, I do a lot of that after becoming a mother but this was different. I was crying because I was being reminded of the good in the world. That in a day of violence, of terror, of complete disregard for human life...there is good. Not just good but pure selflessness.
Bad things happen, bad people do bad things that we can't control. But I feel like if we lose faith, if we give up on humanity then they have done far worse than bomb innocent people and take innocent lives.
So I'm going to force myself out of this funk. I'm going to hold my head up high and I'm going to think of those people who died in Boston and smile - smile because I want to remember them in life, remember them in pleasure, not pain and honor them with keeping faith by recognising the good that happens each and every day.
