Prayers, Love & Hope for Boston

The Boston Marathon has been a Patriot's Day tradition in Massachusetts for over 100 years.  Hardcore marathon runners compete, but so do individual and group runners who run for charity and their own personal challenges.  While I live only 30 miles or so from Boston, I have only attended the Boston Marathon once with a friend and her husband as part of the cheering section.  

In utter disbelief, I began reading tweets about an explosion at the marathon and I turned on the TV to watch the horrific events that were unfolding.  My heart hurts for the Richard family.  I cannot even begin to process what that poor father is going through.  My heart aches for the families of the other deceased victims and for all the people recovering from their wounds.

I simply cannot fathom this violence.  I cannot understand how anyone could deliberately hurt so many people in such a calculated, unfeeling and evil way.  But in the wake of this horror, so many good people stepped up.  They ran to the victims and helped, without hesitation and without thought of the possibility of more explosions.  I keep trying to focus on the good. 

I guess it's just part of the world, you can't have good without evil, love without hate, life without death.  We have to have to have faith that good will defeat evil, and love will conquer hate. Unfortunately we're all going to die, but we must make the most of our life while we are still here. 

I am confident that the Boston Marathon will come back stronger than ever.  But for now, I pray for the Richard family who has a long battle ahead, dealing with the loss of their precious son, their daughter who lost a leg and may lose the other and the mom, who suffered a traumatic brain injury.  I pray for the families of Lu Lingzi, a BU Grad student and Krystal Campbell, both killed by the bombs.  I pray for the many people who lost limbs and have a long painful road of recovery ahead of them.  I pray for all those that were hurt.  But I also pray for all of us.  I pray that compassion, love and kindness will overcome the evil in this world.  I pray we are strong enough to live with tolerance and a little extra patience in our everyday life.  And I pray we all have the strength to step up and help should the opportunity present itself.