when it all comes crashing down

Open a separate window and listen to this. We all need a soundtrack to our lives.

Sometimes I sit and think. Too much. And it's no wonder the number one disease on the planet is depression. There's so much beauty around me, and I'm blessed to live with it, and amoungst it, and often capture it through my lens, and then every now and again there's so much ugliness I'm ready to throw in the towel and give up on all humanity. Have you read the news lately? Without even bothering to investigate headlines on an international or even national level, I can find the exact kind of vulgarity that makes me shake my head and wonder, What the hell is going on? right here in my so-called peaceful prairie backyard.

Beyond the unthinkable wars abroad being fought by husbands and brothers and sons and wives and sisters and daughters, beyond the untimely deaths of the rich and famous from you-name-the-disease, horrible things are happening in the homes of my friends - real live people, not just statistics in the newspapers, standing toe to toe with the tragic accidents, senseless shootings, bizarre kidnappings, and brutal murders splashed all over the local papers in the last few weeks.

People who take things, be it life, dignity or a DVD player, from other people, with no respect for their physical or emotional person, with utter disregard for their worth as a human being, leave the people, my friends, to wade through the aftermath and try to make sense of life, to try and internalize the grotesque reality without being consumed by it or destroyed by it, to find the will and strength to go on in spite of it all. Some of you are facing accidental drownings in your backyard, shootings next door, infidelities and betrayals by so-called friends and so-called lovers, and loved ones stricken with cancer and other unthinkable diseases - my heart aches for you.

We are blessed to know one another, and it is by our strength of character, optimism, integrity, and love that we will make it through to the other side. This, too, shall pass. To my friends near and far, met and unmet, old and new, I love you all.