Baby we were born to run....

  Wednesday I figured out why I couldn't write a single thing.  I had Boston on my mind and in my heart.  The senselessness of it all.  One minute everyone is celebrating a major milestone, a 26 mile marathon, and the next, devastation.  Like every major news event, I was glued to the TV and social media.  I'm a serious news junkie and I just want more and more info.  I guess I think it will help me understand the why.  I still don't understand the why.   For almost a week I thought about Jeff Bauman Jr.  He was one of the first of the victims I saw in photographs. In a wheelchair, gripping his leg, which was badly injured.  His face was in my mind.  With every news report, every picture, I kept thinking about the man in the wheelchair.  On Tuesday I didn't even know his name.  Thursday I found his name, in an article about the pictures run my major media outlets.  Jeff, had indeed survived.  Both legs amputated under the knee, surgery to relieve fluid in his abdomen, but alive.  Then I realized I had been holding my breath.  I had been praying daily for a man I have never known, who I will never meet.  But I knew he needed my prayers.  I prayed that he was safe, and alive, and in good care.    As the week went on with the manhunt and the shut down of a major city in the US, I thought about other tragedies that we have faced as Americans.  Whether they were on US soil or not.  One thing has always been clear, the American spirit to rally will never perish.   Even at our darkest hours, Americans will rally around each other.  No matter their creed or color.  No matter their party or their vote.  They will rally and come together.  Offer help, offer shelter, offer hope, and always offer prayer.  Is it any wonder that the stories of heroes like the man in the cowboy hat, captivate us?  That stories of Bostonians opening up their restaurants and business, even there homes to help displaced runners who had no where to go, steel us in our grief?  No, because it's what we do, as a country, as a people.  We come together, we pray together, we heal together.   The people of Boston, the victims, the first responders, the families of the perished, they have miles to go.  They have a journey of grief that they must go on.  With every bump in the road, every turn and fork in front of them.  We as Americans, we too have our own journey.  Our resolve a little stronger, our hearts on a higher alert.  We will not go about our days and forget.  We will add the marathon bombings onto our lists of acts by terrorists that were aimed at tearing us apart.  To make sure that we got knocked to our knees.  To make sure we had a harder time getting up.    Those terrorists, they always forget.  We are not easily knocked down.  We are not slow to get up.  We rise from our tragedies with a renewed vigor.  We will not be intimidated, or submitted.  We will not let the acts of a few, hold hostage the many.  As Americans we band together, we push forward with tears in our eyes and patriotism in our hearts.    This time next year, we will be watching the Boston Marathon while holding our breaths.  Like any other anniversary of a great tragedy we will be mindful of the year before.  We will be more cautious.  We may even be a little scared.  But it won't stop us.  We, the entire nation will be there, in person, or in our hearts.  We will be waiting for those amazing athletes to cross that finish line.  To say, no yell, at those who challenge us, "You can't take this from us!".   Because baby we were born to run.