Challenges

I had startling and very sad news last night from my friends.  There was a multiple shooting over the weekend in Moscow, Idaho.  My friend Marilyn's brother, David Trail, was one of the victims.  My friend Laura wrote me that another victim, the shooter's mother, was friends with her husband Paul. Another innocent person also died, a manager at Arby's.  The shooter had at least 5 guns in his possession.  I am stunned and saddened.  Anytime I hear news of senseless death it upsets me.  The recent shootings in France also stimulated many feelings in me.  Many of you know my daughter Kate died in 2002 from sudden meningitis and the resulting encephalitis.  I have become friends with the grief process over the years and it becomes easier to recognize and flow with but it does not get much less intense.  Last night I lay awake thinking of Marilyn and her family and of the Moscow community where I have stayed many times.   I wish them peace and love.  I believe that we all share in these tragedies because we are connected and I worry for our world that so many think violence will solve problems on personal, family, community and society levels.

I write about this today because not only am I sad about this incident and all the senseless and destructive violence, but because I am thinking of the trip Mike and I will take into the Sonoran Desert with our Border Links/Immigration Justice experience. I know we will walk through the desert and see graves, possibly bones and other artifacts left by people trying to get into this country, to get to a better life for themselves and their loved ones.  It will be one of the hardest things I have to do on this sabbatical, to bear witness to the senseless destruction that immigration policies and world economic policies create.  And yet it is my task - to understand immigration and how it works currently (or does not work) and how it worked previously.  I hope and pray there will be some good news on this journey.  This morning it seems bleak because I am mourning with my friends and the people in and around Moscow.

Last night I spent some time finishing a quilt that I am donating to the Lydia Place auction.  (www.lydiaplace.org).  I am the past president of the board this year and my involvement is very rewarding.  I am grateful that my sister Betsy quilted the piece on her machine.  I was grateful to be able to have this wonderful quilt with a very happy pattern and soft flannel backing to finish and to know that someone will buy it and it will be source of warmth and comfort.  It was a source of warmth and comfort to me as I was working on it last night.  It helped mitigate the anger and the sadness I was feeling after hearing the shocking news.  This morning it has helped me to write about what happened and to express my feelings.  I was stuck as I sat down to write and found that the only thing I could write about to begin today's entry was the shootings.  I imagine that this blog may also be the way I make sense of what I see on the trip.  It was a good lesson.

I am posting a picture of the quilt. I call it Enchanted, named after the block pattern.

Thanks for reading.