peace be with you

I need to slow it down. I take deep breaths.
My emotions are running high. I lose my temper too quickly and regret my words right after. I am overwhelmed by the news. The weight of the world is coming down on me and I don't know how to process it.
Pain, suffering, hate, ignorance. It builds up and I can't take it anymore. Shut off the social media. Shut off the view points and the voices. Shut off the generalizations, the images, the stories. Because it is too much for us all. It doesn't help.
I sit here in my quiet cozy house. My dog has more luxuries than most people in this world. I find joy in my children, as they play with things that most children in the world will never know.
We don't experience hunger in our home. We have cozy beds to rest our heads. We safely go about our lives, while other take shelter from bombs, environmental disasters, terrorists and God knows what else.
What can we do? Changing a Facebook profile to the French flag seems hardly relevant or appropriate. It's trivial and doesn't take into account all the other nations that experience terror on a daily basis.
I need to slow it down, take deep breaths, as anger and stress and feelings of being small and helpless take over.
I light a candle. I say quiet prayers. Peace, peace, peace.
I take stock of my blessings. Gratitude, gratitude, gratitude.
We make small decisions together. Actions, no matter how small, are better than nothing. My love and I, will donate this Christmas instead of gifts for one another. We will fill a shoe box together as a family, and send it off to Samaritan's Purse. We will practice random acts of kindness, this season... and more often. We will buy less, and spend more time together. We will not live in fear.

Peace be with you.
xox