Fire in South Plainfield

Once you choose hope, 

anything's possible.  

~Christopher Reeve

As I read the Star-Ledger’s front page yesterday, I thought I would be able to read the full article about the South Plainfield fire that claimed the lives of four children and a grandmother.  Truth is, I couldn’t.  This doesn’t happen often.  I was filled with such sadness for Natalie Jefferson.  She is the grief-stricken mother who lost four of her children and her mother that tragic day. 

Please light a candle, say a prayer, do an act of kindness for a child or elderly person, send thoughts of comfort.  Natalie Jefferson has been dealt a terrible hand and the only way I can see myself going through my day of mundane tasks is to put some kindness into the world.  Am I trying to create karmic balance?  --  put positive in the world to balance the negative?  Maybe.  I realize there’s not enough good in the world to “make up for” the loss she’s suffered.  There is no “making up for” such a tragedy.  But my options as a stranger who doesn’t know Natalie are these:  ignore the loss because she’s a stranger not in my little “world”, succumb to the notion that the world is tragically flawed and goodness/kindness are quaint vestiges of a bygone era, OR bring myself closer to Natalie taking upon myself a molecule of the pain she feels.

So I will light a candle for Natalie’s family:  her mother Annie, age 62, and children Aliza, age 12, Tyler, age 7, Christopher, age 5, and Elijah, age 2.  My hope is that you would find a spiritual practice that touches your soul and find a way to include this South Plainfield family.