More Heartbreaks and Finding Peace

If having to watch people dealing with the aftermath of Charlie Kirk's death, I guess it wasn't the end. I was celebrating another year of life, another most influential leader who lived a good long (really long) life was coming to the end of his. President Russell M. Nelson, the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at 101 years old passed away. There are a lot of people who talk smack about him and the religion, but when I say influential, I'm not just talking religion, even though that was a large part of his later years. President Nelson was a pioneer in healthcare, having performed the first open heart surgery in the state and was in the team that developed the heart-lung machine. There are many people with heart conditions out there who are still living today because of these. 

I was feeling a little off on Sunday morning and didn't know why. I assumed maybe there was a little melancholy there thinking about someone else dying on my birthday (if anyone recalls, I've talked in the past about a dear neighbor who passed away on my 21st birthday). It turns out later I found out about the incident in Michigan when the meeting house was attacked and burned down, and I had a connection to someone who had a close connection, so I got firsthand accounts about what was going on. I live far away from there, but you can guarantee that the members here were and still are feeling the attack at some level, though obviously in a different way than the ones who experienced it personally.

Having all of these things tied to my community and my people just weighed me down, even that one day this week I was feeling so emotionally heavy and just had to allow a little time for crying spells. I had to limit a little media until I'd worked it out of my system. It lasted all day. 

The next morning, I woke up with the tune of a hymn popping into my head immediately. It was still new enough that I couldn't recall all of the words of the verses, but the chorus I knew, and that circulated through my mind over and over again. Some people get bothered by that, but I don't mind. Over and over, I heard the words in my mind, It is well with my soul. Even though I didn't remember all of the words, I knew the message of the song as well as the story behind it, and I felt a sense of peace while I got up and started the day. All throughout the day, I came across things that helped me continue feeling that peace. I watched a YouTube video made by a Rabbi in response to the attack on Sunday who had gone through it himself which was a beautiful expression of support. People were supporting the victim's families. The most impressive of them all was the effort to financially support the attacker's family.

I still don't know much about the family, but I know that they had a child with ongoing physical needs. Having had some experience with that, I can empathize with them. There are many challenges in that type of situation, and the effort being made would make a great difference. I think it's a beautiful thing for people to have this opportunity. Not only the LDS people, but other faiths are represented, and even those who typically aren't friendly with the LDS are joining into the cause. Such a beautiful and unifying act! I think one of the reasons an arm has been extended to the family was because of our previous experience with Charlie Kirk and realizing that there are times the family of the perpetrator is innocent of the acts of the individual.

So now that I've been having It is Well with My Soul running through my mind for a few days now, and discovering an app that can help me transpose, I'm now working on a flute version of the song as well as a Christmas song (that may require some practice) and hope to have to share soon.

Another photo taken while in the mountains. Somewhere
in there is the area where a new fire is, but
here's to hoping the weekend storm comes in
and helps with that!