Loose At The Seams

Picture this: your good, old dog needs put down; the rods in your 2007 Chrysler minivan are shot ($7700); you missed the email from your daughters' school where they notify you that one of her teachers committed suicide and there is a day of grief counseling. If you are my friend Carin, this is the dead animal today has dragged to the doorstep and dropped at your feet.

Where do you begin? What is our coping mechanism hard-wired to accommodate in the brief span of one day? Granted I've had worse and I can joke about it now. In one fell day I lost my mom and my girlfriend dumped me when I told her. I lost my dad 8 months later. Bad news is going to happen; life is 100% terminal.

We do what we must do and the sense of stunned, disbelief carries us through the motions and allows for the time to sort it out later, one piece at a time. I've had the world on my mind lately; Iraq of course, where my heart and my mind cannot reach one accord; Israel, where the final act of the bible is played out and each day shows a stronger sign of prophetic hastening; India where, I was told yesterday the persecution of Christians has shifted from nearly overt to the burning of homes and property and murder unchecked. I cannot follow to their conclusion, the threads of interwoven consequence regarding these events. However, let's keep things in perspective; I taught my kids spelling and mathematics today. Anna and I played with her dollhouse. The average cost of a gallon of unleaded is between $1.80-$1.90; bread is $2.40-$2.60; eggs and milk are still in my price range too.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Carin and her family. Let us know if there's anything we can do to help.