To West and Boston with Love

By Stephanie Gretchen Burgevin. Stephanie is a writer and retreat leader. She is an associate faculty member of Shalem and a graduate of theirLeading Contemplative Prayer Groups and Retreats Program and leads spiritual and secular programs. Stephanie manages Shalem’s blog and is one of the social media coordinators for the Shalem Institute Facebook page.

I’ve been listening to the news this morning, my heart heavy from the events in Boston and West, Texas. So much loss and suffering. So many lives forever altered.

This country has been so lucky when compared to other places all around the globe where the level of violence and fear that we are experiencing in the Boston area is the norm: explosions, bombs, guns, deadly violence.

I think about the children and how they are trying to make sense of being on lock down in their homes where they can’t go outside or even answer the door for anyone. What trauma, what pain.

And yet, as I parked the car in the driveway this morning and went to turn off the radio, a person from West was talking about how, miraculously he said, the signs of hope were already happening. The town was coming together and starting to rebuild.

On Tuesday when I was reading about the Boston Marathon bombs I also read about all the people who gave so freely for others, for complete strangers. They opened their homes, fed, and cared for people they had not known before.

Amidst all this hurt, hope and love are evident.

May the people in these towns and their loved ones feel the love, support and comfort we are all sending them.

This world is in deep trouble, from top to bottom.
But it can be swiftly healed by the balm of love–Rumi