Thoughts

Such a tragedy filled week. All I can do is what I do best, write. So here are my thoughts this week reacting to the senseless deaths.


We never know when we will meet with Death,
When he will call us to him or touch our lives.
He is ever present, a fact of our humanity,
Yet we choose to ignore him at our peril.
There are times when he is welcomed,
When suffering and pain are too much to bear.
The tears are those of relief when a loved one's agony ends.
There are times when he approaches silently,
In the night and someone slips away, a life well lived.
The tears are those of love and gratitude for time with the departed.
There are times when there is no clue he will arrive,
A thief who takes a loved one too young, too soon, too quickly.
The tears are bitter, filled with anger and questions we cannot answer.

These are the times when he arrives suddenly, in violence,
With guns, with knives, with hate, with brutality.
Times when many go together, Death greedy for their lives.
Times when he snatches one surrounded by powerless onlookers,
Horrified at what they witnessed, helpless in the face of rage.
Then the tears are hot, angry, free flowing and anxious.
The tears are for the lost and for ourselves,
Struggling to understand how he can be so cruel and random,
Taking those before their time and seemingly for no reason.

Today we mourn many taken suddenly and pointlessly.
We join in thought and prayer with those we will never meet.
We struggle to understand how Death can take them,
No notice, no time to prepare, just violence and sadness.
We join together, hold them in our hearts and vow to remember.
Promise to hold those we love close, to keep them safe, to love them,
To live life to the full and embrace each day as if it were our last.