How do you respond to tragedy?
Yesterday my heart ached for the families in Connecticut but I was most thankful for all the others who wept the same way I wept, for all those who had such compassion that their hearts ached and they openly wept too.
It is good to know that there is still so much love in the world that the world wept together. I learned from Kevin Hall in his book “Aspire” that the true meaning of passion is to suffer, to be willing to suffer for what you love. The families in Newtown are suffering because of their love of their children, siblings, grandchildren, spouses, or mothers who have been killed. Compassion means to suffer with another, to feel their suffering and to weep alongside them. That is what the world is doing right now weeping with the families of Newtown.
The greatest Love I felt when my daughter Celeste was diagnosed with cancer was the tears my friend Janet cried when we talked over the phone and I told her the news. When her heart ached for us, for me as a mother and she felt my pain and wept for me. When I couldn’t even cry, her love in those tears touched my heart and comforted me.
I have been blessed on many occasions to weep for my friends. Yesterday, it was blessing to know so many who wept as well, to know the world is filled with love and compassion, that while one young man tragically was hurting so much, the rest of the world cried out in love to help heal the wounds that were left behind.