an open letter

Today my heart is broken in many ways. I pray that the pain dulls quickly for all those involved… and for those left reeling from the tragedies in our country and in my local communities.

Life has a funny way of kicking us in the gut, sometimes when we are already down, and it can make the whole thing seem like a pretty bleak affair. Often when I am in the darkest doldrums of my own pain, I ask “why” and am disappointed or even disillusioned when there is no perfect answer waiting for me. I cannot claim to be a perfect person, and this is not a perfect world… yet I expect each painful situation to have a perfect reason “why” almost immediately after I experience it… funny how logic tends to go out the window when we are hurting.

Despite this, I am grateful. Pain has the purest power to reveal to us who we truly are when all artifice is stripped away—and perhaps, if we are willing, pain can strengthen us to fight bigger battles and win greater victories in the days to come.

I am not an expert in how to deal with pain; I only have what little knowledge I have acquired in my life’s journeys. But this I know: life is so precious and beautiful because it is not always easy. If it were easy, it would be quite unremarkable. There are often no words big enough or beautiful enough to soothe or put back together every piece of a broken heart. But words are a way of saying to each other “I am with you.” So, with these words, know that I am with you. And know that, while they may not be perfect for whatever heartache you are going through… they are said with deepest love.

x Aly