The Voice of Sorrow

The past couple of days have given me some time to reevaluate our blog. I call it "our" blog because I envision it someday as a place for women to come and share their voices safely, speaking out about all things that move their heart and soul to wholeness. I have come to expect that all things change; I trust that this forum will rise up to its purpose and serve everyone. The last entry concerned our community's fear and sorrow. Today I voice how deeply our small Southern California community of Poway has been rocked by the randomness of Chelsea King's death. We have become a point of national attention. In a community that boasts to have one of the lowest crime rates in America, we have been rocked to our core.

I realize that part of the grief is not only the randomness of it, but it is also the expectation we carry. While we grieve the loss of a parent or loved one after living a long fruitful life, it is an expected grieving. We face death under those circumstances with acceptance. To have it visit our door via a young, hopeful daughter who only wanted to serve her community and her world is something that is hard to wrap our heads around. The sorrow for what seems unfair can be consuming and the grief can feel eternal and endless. Chelsea's death is one of many sons and daughters who leave too soon, for random, senseless acts. It is a stark reminder that death is part of life.

Elizabeth Lesser's insight on death in her book "Broken Open" suggests that we learn to "practice dying" every day so we can live. She tells us that to practice dying "...means living as close to reality as we can in each moment." It is being able to live our lives, each day, fearlessly. Life is continual change, moving, and evolutionary in nature. History tells us that we all must die. But while we live and we practice living fearlessly, we must also respect the nature of our world and resist taking unnecessary risks that might hurry this evolution along. For Chelsea, her sacrifice has exposed a dangerous person who needed to be removed from society. In the meantime, please hold her sacrifice in gratitude and her parents, her young brother in you prayers. Hold us all in prayer for our understanding and healing.