I haven't been ignoring the issues. I just haven't been writing about them. 

What issues?

The huge ones.  Candace. Missy. Emily

I just don't have the words.  Probably because I'm running so fast to avoid the heavy grieving and empathetic fear that goes along with having compassion and interceding in prayer for those left weeping, praying, searching for some meaning to this thing.  It's hard to write legibly when you are running.

I have a hard time facing tragedy.  It seems to me that other people always know what to say, what to do, while I stand there wringing my hands and glancing around, my face getting redder and redder for fear I'm going to do the worse possible thing and hurt this grieving person even worse than they already are.

I've found that the answer to being a social nitwit is prayer. And I mean really praying, as opposed to turning in a Prayer Lottery Ticket. Praying is the only way I have of touching the lives of the hurting around me.

I was chatting with my friend, Lilacs, the other day.  She was telling me of a few difficult things that were going on.  She didn't go into any detail, but she didn't need to.  My heart broke just with imagining the fear and grief folks were going thru.  I wrote back to her some words I didn't know I knew...and as I read them, I began to weep.  This is why I struggle so with all this death and suffering, pain and loss.

"We were made to be kings and queens who live forever, never seeing illness or failure or death.  So when we meet up with it, no matter how used to it we get, it really brings us down.  Amazing that Christ, the King of all Kings, left his throne in perfection and chose to submit himself to the grime and dirt and germs and death and hatefulness that we must now muck around in."

I can only imagine that the Lord spoke through me and to me through those words. I'm really not sure I knew them before. And they comforted me.

Since I have nothing really useful to say, I want to turn your attention to someone who does.  Pattycake has posted a tremendous article on this subject, from a little different perspective. 

Then go on over to Lilac's place.  Again she spears our hearts with her words.  And these words are lovely, dripping with hope borne of grief.

I won't tell you any more about these posts. Sometimes introductions take away from the "owning" of a thing we feel we have discovered ourselves.

Go read.

Then pray.

Then go sit under His wing and cry or ponder or just feel safe for a while.