Sometimes, it’s too much.

I know that, as a species, we’ve been hurting each other for a long, long time. From the very beginning, we’ve set out to elevate ourselves by reducing other people. Sometimes, we reduce them to nothing.

There’s been another shooting. This time, at a social services office that helps adults with developmental disabilities. Not 5 days ago, another in Colorado Springs. Not to mention the coordinated attacks on Paris and Beirut a few weeks ago. Shootings and bombings and terrorism of all kinds have become so commonplace that they almost don’t hurt as much–the word “another” so lightly tacked on that the meaning seems to be nearly lost.

But not entirely lost. I know so many people who hurt right now. We hurt for our loved ones, we hurt for each other, and we hurt for ourselves. I don’t know what the solution is, or if there is a way to cure this sickness that seems so pervasive in our nature. The truth us, we are broken. We grow a little harder with each attack, a little less forgiving. The more our safety becomes threatened, the more hate we feel. And hate is contagious to the point where no one is unaffected. Tragedy follows closely in it’s wake.We destroy when we should love. Plain and simple. Love above all is the only answer. We are none alone and we are all the same. The sooner we see that, the sooner we can come to respect one another and will no longer have to fear for our safety or for the safety of anyone else.

In the meantime, I’m issuing a quiet prayer for those who lost somebody today and for the rest of us who find ourselves a little more frightened, a little more uneasy, and a little more broken hearted.