What the what?

April is hard.

So many crappy things happen in April – I noticed this about 10 years ago, and I tend to just push through April with my head down and my eyes on the prize of May. April is when lunatics go one step further then they usually might, it really is the cruelest month.

It’s been grey and wet and snowy over much of my world (and over much of the country) when it’s usually just blue and wet and slightly greenish in my backyard.

And then – Boston.

As anyone with a soul, I hate this. I hate the wanton destruction of human life, the attitude that “My political point (whatever that may turn out to be) is more important than your son’s life or your left leg.”

But I love our strength.

The 24/7 coverage of this event isn’t necessary – it’s overkill and rubbernecking – and I’ve spent most of the past few days with the TV off, watching videos of cooking shows while I barrel through a huge pile of knitting.

I may be the only person alive who can actually
GAIN weight just by watching a baking show.

But I’ve been impressed with the strength, the positivity, the professionalism of the folks in Boston. They are a model to all of us in this situation.

Folks all over the world have lived with this kind of terror for prolonged periods. I remember living in London in the early 80’s with the sense that around any corner a bomb could be waiting to explode.

Kids in war zones grow up leg-less because unexploded mines wait for the tiny foot to trigger an explosion. Funerals for victims of terrorism are part of the scenery in more parts of the world than we like to remember.

That doesn’t make it any better for the folks in Boston, but perhaps it may make them feel less alone.

And perhaps it should remind all of us that along with being citizens of the US, we’re citizens of the world. Which is still a beautiful place, even on a grey, cold day when so many of us applaud the courage of beantown.

Some folks are saying stupid things on twitter, what’s new about that? We’re human beings, we say stupid things sometimes.

“‘Bombs don’t kill people, pressure cookers kill people’ – what? You don’t believe me? Obviously you never ate my Aunt Lorraine’s pulled pork…”

But we also have the capacity for love, for support and for resilience.

We are strong, we are brave, and our love is larger than our hate.

In honor of the Boston victims, I’ve made a donation to Doctors Without Borders.*

I have both legs and arms, and I have a wonderful life, I’m grateful.

Perhaps you are, too?

*I thought long and hard about where to donate, and it kept coming back to the organization that’s done so much to help so many across the world. The Boston victims will be taken care of medically – but this only serves to highlight the many victims of violence around the world who will NOT have access to medical help.

My decision is mine, yours will be yours, but for myself, I feel it’s incumbent on me to show my gratitude to the universe by doing something positive right now.