Alas.

An acquaintance's mother succumbed to cancer this morning.
31 or more people are dead in Virginia for apparently no reason.
My cousin is still fighting in Baghdad, alive, shaken, and recovering from his injuries.

Today is a day when I cannot seem to wrap my head around the randomness of life. I'm hurting for everyone everywhere, but specifically a family in Ohio; families, friends and a college in Virginia; the kids who are soldiering on in this senseless war in Iraq.

Today is a day to feel sorrow for these losses. To empathize and sympathize. To remember those people we have lost in the past. To reflect.

Today is a day to stop and think about everything wonderful that we take for granted every day. Stop, sniff those new flowers popping up for spring. Tip the people behind the counter at Starbuck's or where ever you get your coffee. Tell your family and friends how much you love them. Enjoy the birds chirping happily outside the window. Do something nice (even just something small) for a stranger today.

Tomorrow is a new day.


"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense." --Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The sun'll come out tomorrow..." -- Annie

That is all.