Skip to main content

The sun shines through the darkest clouds

There is something about the sun that lifts my spirits on pretty much all occasions. Watching the sun reflect off the Mon as I drove down the street where I worked inevitably would make me feel at ease. I do miss that.

While driving to church Easter morning, the sun was shining brightly. I told myself that this was going to be a better week. It just had to be. Last week was spent mourning the deaths of three slain Pittsburgh police officers and feeling my heart break for the family of two kids who went to Jordan's school who were tragically killed in a car accident. The week ended with Father Elmer, a beloved retired priest at my church, accidentally running into a handful of people after the Good Friday service, killing one and injuring others.

It was at once sad and heart-warming at the Easter Vigil mass Saturday night. Walking in the portico and confronting a makeshift memorial for the crash brought tears to my eyes. But listening to Father John talk about people coping with a tragedy and how everyone injured in that crash asked about Fr. Elmer made me feel better. That the family who lost their mother/wife/grandmother is so concerned about how Fr. is doing is a testament to the human spirit and the ability to forgive. (Having TV cameras shoved in your face during mass does provide a little levity, I suppose.)

Yes, last week was not my favorite. But knowing the sun shines through the darkest clouds gives me hope. It reminds me that there is good in the world. That people can overcome tragedy. That there are everyday heroes out there walking among us.

So I will continue to embrace the sun as I feel it but also try to be okay with the rain when it comes too.
Labels:

Comments

Christine said…
I happened to be driving through Forest Hills last week when the accident happened at the church. I didn't know WHAT was going on, but I saw one, then another, then another, then another ambulance speeding in the other direction. I even turned KDKA on the radio to see if I could find out anything, but didn't hear the story until that night on the news. So sad! (And almost the same thing had just happened a week or so before at the Dellalo's near where I live.) Glad you were able to find comfort amidst the sorrow.
April 14, 2009 at 9:48 AM
Facie said…
I stopped by the school today to drop off Jordan's payment form for school. Afterward, I sat in the church for a few minutes, which happened to be just a few hours after the funeral of the woman who died. Incidentally, Fr. Elmer took part in that mass. I have to say, I felt sad sitting in that church. But maybe it is rain as much as anything else. Maybe I have SAD!
April 15, 2009 at 6:23 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Let's build something together!

That is one of my favorite slogan's (Or is that a tagline? Over a year removed from a design firm, and I can no longer remember). It belongs to Lowe's, although I am more of a Home Depot gal. But suffice it to say if someone handed me a $5,000 gift card to Home Depot (or Lowe's), I would be ecstatic. If I had $10,000 to spend, you could hear my shouts of joy from miles away. The things I could do with that money. Well, the things I could have Brian do with that money anyway. I love walking around Home Depot and admiring the fancy bathroom sinks and tubs. I look at the lighting and think about where I would put each fixture. I touch textured and colorful tiles and wistfully look at the fancy kitchen cabinets. I admire the various carpet styles and blinds. I look at the fancy front-loading washer and wonder what it must be like to have a steam dryer. I even look longingly at the vacuum cleaners because I can no longer buy a replacement filter for my eight year old mo...
1 comment
Read more

Summer in review

This summer I made it a point to try to take at least one pic of Jordan whenever we went somewhere, which most often was a park. I wanted to capture all the great, fun things we did this summer, knowing that it was probably going to be my last summer not working for quite some time. So here goes. I have expressed my love of Frick Park, particularly Blue Slide Park, in other posts ; it really is one of our favorites. And this summer marked the first one I did not feel the need to follow J around like a little puppy dog. I actually let her run around and explore, though, admittedly, I would panic if more than three minutes went by and I had not seen her. In the pics above, J is at the end of the blue slide, and then hanging several feet above concrete (which scared the crap out of me). We also visited another section of Frick Park, the area on the corner of Braddock and Forbes, a few times. There is not as much to do as Blue Slide, but we go there to mix things up a bit. In the p...
2 comments
Read more

If only I had taken pictures of my detoured drive

When I moved to the Burgh just over 14 years ago, I had a lot of anxiety about getting from "here" to "there." I found the city, which is triangular, and even some of the suburbs quite confusing. On top of that, a lot of the signs were of little help. Clearly they were put up by either natives who had no need for directions or people with a sick sense of humor who thought it would be funny to put signs in random places, leaving off important roads. At some point, I got over that fear of driving to a new building downtown. I don't recall when it happened, but eventually I just figured most of the city out; and when I had to head to a new place, I just drove around, no longer with a feeling of dread, knowing I would eventually get there. But on Sunday morning, that awful, long-ago feeling returned, thanks to the closure of the outbound Fort Pitt Tunnels. I had to pick my mother up from the airport, so there was no avoiding it. (For some reason, my family think...
4 comments
Read more