Bad stuff happens, and has...

Made with deviantArt muro by Joe

Seems like the last few weeks has been a lesson in dealing with the negatives of life. A customer of mine and good acquaintance who frequented my work died, shot by a crazy friend's neighbor at a party. Our friend, Jennifer Peters, died from her fight with cancer. Then just this last week a girl our family has known for a very long time, Morgan for 15 years and me for 10, died from a hit-and-run when she crossed SR503 in Battle Ground. It's not what anyone wants to go through. Add the frustrations of work and having so much stuff in such a small apartment, it forces you to consider what you can do to counteract this feeling of hopelessness, like the world is fighting against you.

It seems so cliche to say, "Use these tragedies to learn a lesson and make yourself better." But why shouldn't you make that the first thing you do in times like this? A friend dies in a shooting, so you make a point to consider the places you frequent and the people you let your children hang out with. A very good person dies of cancer, and you decide to donate your time in some way to cancer survivors. Someone gets hit on a busy highway so you donate money to a cause that provides traffic safety education to children. And in the midst, you remember these people not as tragic stories of loss but instead as inspirations to greatness.

As my quick little sketch above states, bad stuff happens. There's really not much you can do to be affected by the sublime events of life; sometime, somewhere, some way, you will be caught up in the ripple effect of a tragedy. It's inevitable. The question you have to ask yourself is what you will do when it happens. Will you let it take over your thoughts, coloring your world with a dark overtone and a haze of depression? Or will you focus the light in your life on your dark spot to clear its effect on you away?