Don't Let the Darkness Win

I'm guessing now that one of crowned sweethearts of scrapblogging has decided (in a fit of post-hurricane life re-evaluation) that she no longer has time to invest in the many readers of her blog, scrapblogging is about to go the way of the Paperkin and decorative scissors. She ending her relationship with her blog and by extension, those of us who regularly read her work, commented on it, and participated in it. It almost feels like we, the loyal readers, value her work far more than she values her readers...and that stings. By disabling her comments, she didn't even give her many loyal readers a chance to say goodbye.

She's not alone of course. I've seen several other blog writers in the past two days indicate that perhaps sharing their lives with on-line friends is no longer a worthwhile endeavor.

I think it's sad, really. Sad to let darkness win and call it something positive.

Life goes on.
Reverently.
Richly.
Preciously.
It carries on.
We hurt and we mourn for the moment.
We remember for a lifetime.
But in the end, we carry on.

We are supposed to live it.
We are supposed to invest in it.
Live it fully.
Live it with ghusto and passion.
We are designed to feel empathy and to hurt for those who are hurting.
But we are giving in to the pain and the darkness if we let it rule us from afar.

Mourn the Loss.
Help those you can.
Then adjust.
Evaluate.
Transform.
And carry on.

CARRY ON!! with everything in you...not in a bruised and battered way but in a way that continues to make a difference to those around you. Use the gifts you have to make the world around you a better place. Some kids I know refer to this as "letting your light shine."

When there's something in your life that brings you joy and that slips joy and light into the lives of others, don't dillude yourself into thinking that sacrificing it somehow makes the world a better, more just place. It doesn't. Sacrificing that thing only sucks the joys and abundance of life from your heart and others.

Is that really what the world needs at a time like this? Less joy and abundance?
I just don't think so.