How to live in a time of great loss

             Today the news announced that a lone gunman shot into a crowd of 30,000 people and took 60 innocent lives and injured over 500. When things like this happen we are all reminded just how easily we could lose the ones we love. In an instant, in a push of a trigger, the landscape of our lives can change forever. Life is so fleeting, so unstable, nothing is guaranteed. Tonight, 60 families are reeling and mourning a senseless loss, while over 500 more families pray and wait in anguish to hear even a shred of good news about their injured loved ones. 

          I have experienced deep loss before in my life. A very cherished friend took his life a long time ago. Although it's been 10 years now, not a day goes by without me thinking of him. His life left a legacy of love and care so deep in my soul that I carry his memory with me in all my meaningful moments. Every amazing moment, every joyous feeling is dedicated to him and his memory. Yet, although I have experienced loss, I am still blown away by how people pick up the pieces and live productive lives after a senseless and violent loss of a loved one. 

          One thing is certain though, one day, whether it is many years from now or tomorrow, we will all have to say goodbye to a loved one. That very idea grips me with fear some sleepless nights. To think that one day I will no longer hold, hear and talk to any one of my dear loved ones seems unfair and unjust. Yet, that is the nature of life, we come, we live and we go. Yet, its this very fear of loss that propels me to fight the good fight now, take on challenges, push hard to find my limits, be kind, do good, make smart choices and carry on. We all want to give up on our hopes for humanity right now, to scream in anger to the heavens, to wallow in the sadness and sink into feelings of despair  Yet, the minute we do that we stop living and they win. Never mind who "they" are, what's important is that we never give up living. 

               Life is a gift. I heard a few weeks ago an interview with Don Miguel Ruiz, Author of The Four Agreements, in which he says your very presence here on earth is proof that God exists. That is such a simple, yet, powerful idea. Life is the ultimate gift, the gift of God. We owe it to ourselves and the ones we love to roll-up our sleeves and live it the best way we can, and do it in the name of all those we've lost too soon. 

             Tomorrow, I will run before work as I do every week on Tuesdays and at that very moment in which I stop struggling to catch my breath and begin to feel the power in my legs I will dedicate my feeling of strength and invincibility to those lost today to senseless violence. At work, I plan on typing letters to representatives about gun control, donate to PR relief and try my best to be as present as I can be to my colleagues, my friends, my family and even to total strangers. There is a Buddhist meditation I heard about through Tara Brach, founder of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, D.C., in which you wish every living being you come across happiness and joy. I will be practicing this all week long trying to get my center back.