N is for News

The news hasn’t been good, not for quite some time. In fact, it has been so bad for so long for so many that it has taken much of the joy out of the arrival of spring—and that’s saying something. There has been news of the conflict in Libya, the earthquake in New Zealand and flooding in Australia, the tsunami and the threat of a nuclear disaster in Japan. Closer to home, we received news of the loss of seven children in a house fire, the death of the mother of nine in a car crash, another soldier lost in combat. The height and depth and breadth of grief and suffering has been monumental. I don’t know about you, but I sometimes wonder how life goes on for any of us. Why Mother Earth doesn’t simply spin off her axis and end it all.

Those of us who have been spared—meaning those of us who are fortunate enough to be able to carry on with our lives as usual—are nonetheless affected by the news we hear and read about and witness unfolding in the media. But our collective sighs do nothing to console the victims of tragedy, and the outpouring of aid does little to ease their sorrow. So the whole world aches and throbs at the plight of the newsmakers.

Still…the sun rose in the East this morning and you can count on it to set in the West tonight. The robins are back and the grass is turning green. The scent of daffodils and hyacinths fills the air and behind my house, the farmer is tilling the soil—proof that life goes on. And that’s pretty good news to me.

I hope your news is good news today.

“The bad news is:

there is no key to the universe.

The good news is:

it was never locked.”

--unknown--

jan