in the middle of it

ello, friends.  I haven't been feeling one hundred percent the last few days.  And in light of all that has been happening in Japan it has hardly felt right to speak so freely and casually about my own little world.  I recognize there are great sorrows happening all the time in every place every day of the week, sorrows I may never hear of.  I realize happy lives continue on through the middle of incredible suffering.  These are the things that make living hard.  The catch in the throat behind every belly laugh and the tear-stained pillow after a successful day.  It's hard to live.  It's hard to walk forward in plenty and still be real and have a place to complain over the small things with the proper perspective small things deserve.  Especially when people, publicly and privately, are suffering under loads too large for me to wrap my mind and heart around.  What to do but to reach our arms out to hug and open our wallets and clear our schedules if we can.  What else but to love, to love, to love.