Living Your Spirit # 38 ~ Life and Pain

   Today I read a post by a father who has only a few days ago lost his sweet daughter to cancer. She was only 5 years old, the youngest of three sisters, and was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumor only three short months ago. I have included the link on her name so you can read her story. Her name was Gabby.
I don't know him, but my heart goes out to this man and his family. I am glad he had the courage to post Gabby's story for all to read. I am glad he had the courage to share his unabridged grief. In the midst of our whining about our everyday inconveniences, he has brought a grounding point to us. His experience is one of the worst things that can happen to a person.

   We don't understand why children die. Yes, science and medicine explain some things to us, this is true, but it does not seem to be the correct order in which our society has placed things. We are born, we move through life to old age, and then we die. That is how we believe things are supposed to happen. That is how we want to believe. We don't want to accept any other order. But, it happens. It is awful.
   There are accidents. There is violence. There is war. There is disease. We try to understand it. We cannot. Not really. We can explain it away to the best of our ability, but the bottom line is: we just do not know.

   Scientists can explain a lot about how things work. Anthropologists and psychologists can explain why some people behave the way they do. Religion tries to explain the unexplainable. Great minds for thousands of years have tried to explain the meaning of life. Many have belief systems that help - help to cope with what life brings us, giving us reasons for things for which we so want reasons. Sometimes there are none; none that we know about for certain. And so we believe.

   We believe because it helps. We believe because it gives us structure, a way to live. We believe because sometimes it is the only thing to which we can cling. Our beliefs are different, and that is okay. That is what I believe. I believe it is okay that we all have different belief systems, as long as we are not hurting one another. I believe that we should be respectful of others. I believe that we should help each other. I believe that life can be hurtful enough on its own without us adding to that hurt.

I believe that this precious little girl's life was amazing. I believe she touched others in a way that not many of us can. I believe her father helped many people with his sharing. I know that does not bring him or his family much comfort at this moment, but it is my hope that he continues to share so that we all can believe...so that we can believe that people can make a difference in other people's lives, whether they know them or not. Through little things or big things, though joy or grief, through laughter or tears, we can help each other. We need to help each other.

I BELIEVE