the weather has welcomed us outside.
the flowers, stuffed animals and balloons keep multiplying across the street…a reminder of the sorrow.
the weather has welcomed us outside.
the flowers, stuffed animals and balloons keep multiplying across the street…a reminder of the sorrow.
prairie daze 
A reminder of the sorrow — besides humanity’s ability to cause sorrow, and that abundantly, I am always comforted to witness humanity’s intolerance to the sorrow it causes. Flowers, stuffed animals, balloons…. again and again, every time! A tender repeated confession — that we all hurt when one hurts. And the ultimate act of defiance to it all? The insistence to heal.
Ever since hearing of this sad news, I am reminded of a good friend’s reflections after the tragic death of his toddler son. When I asked him how he and his wife were doing (about two weeks after their son’s death) he said something like: The “cruel mercy of time” drags us through each day as if nothing has happened. The sun still comes up, night time still falls. And each day — cruelly and mercifully — without adjustment for what has happened, arrives just as it always does. And bit by bit we heal. Bit by bit we reawaken to life.
Resurrection?
I love you dearly,
Dad
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this is what catches in my chest – that in the unavoidable, everyday eyesight of someone for whom this is what she has always, would always do ANYthing to prevent, that in range of a shout that was never heard, like being flayed 6 times a day, like a pollution beyond smell or touch – that on this block of all blocks in Kansas, sadness to horrible to think about happened, made real right here. Did Job’s Satan have another gamble with God on what would most challenge a loving soul? Heart-breaking for all of us, but for you…
so this is your valley of the shadow of death, to walk with your children even, every day. If we can support you in just living, really living and not closing up, in the presence of this, then grace is brought into the world, and evil has not won. Think of us as the friends of Job who were willing to sit with no words for 7 days, as those whose stupid words might help clarify your cry to God. Know that in the midst of all this, your redeemer lives and the One who holds all true power hears your protests and feels accountable to the innocent. That’s what lets the meek come sit beside the King.
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I’m so very sorry. I’ve thought about that child often over the past few days. It boggles my mind.
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