LmT foto

When ICE fires into a car and a woman is killed, it feels not just tragic but shattering—because it violates our basic expectation of safety, restraint, and humanity. There isn’t a clever or tidy thing to say other than “This was wrong”. A few honest responses: grief, anger, disbelief, gut ache and sorrow all at once.
After violence, the world can feel dangerous and unreal. I don’t think I have it in me to forgive quickly and move on. But I know anger is a sane response to moral injury, and grief and anger can co exist - sitting side by side without canceling each other out. For many, that healing often comes through very ordinary acts: checking on someone, holding a hand, cooking a meal, telling the truth gently, refusing to become numb.
My stomach hurts as once again as the world and esp here in the US it seems dangerous and unreal. I labor to stay human in small, deliberate ways, knowling healing often comes through very ordinary acts: checking on someone, holding a hand, cooking a meal, telling the truth gently, refusing to become numb, and simply taking a deep breath.
I know I am not alone, I can write, paint, find community, go for a walk. These don’t fix what happened, but they prevent isolation from deepening the wound. I’m just choosing not to let cruelty define reality. This doesn’t mean forgetting or excusing. It means continuing to live in ways that affirm dignity, care, and restraint—precisely because they were violated.
I don’t know how to make sense of this. I just know it’s wrong, and I’m holding space for the woman who was killed and for everyone who is hurting.

An Epiphany blessing by Jan Richardson
Blessed are you
who bear the light
in unbearable times,
who testify
to its endurance
amid the unendurable,
who bear witness
to its persistence
when everything seems
in shadow
and grief.
Blessed are you
in whom
the light lives,
in whom
the brightness blazes—
your heart
a chapel,
an altar where
in the deepest night
can be seen
the fire that
shines forth in you
in unaccountable faith,
in stubborn hope,
in love that illumines
every broken thing
it finds.
© Jan Richardson from Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons.

Photo: Starlight over the Siletz Bay.

♥️🎆🎉✨