this life is hard on the heart.

the past week has been filled with unusual amounts of sadness and pain.

a customer at my store, who had been trying to get pregnant for a long time, finally did. she was due this week. last week i saw her, and was momentarily overjoyed because she didn't look pregnant anymore. but her countenance was not that of a glowing mother rejoicing over the birth of a beautiful newborn. she told us that at the end of march, there was a day when she wasn't feeling any activity in her womb. she went to the doctor, not really worried about it, but... it turned out, the baby girl had turned breach and had cut off her own blood supply. the little one did not survive. the woman had to give birth to her stillborn baby girl a few days later. she asked us to tell the other partners at starbucks so that she wouldn't have to explain it again. i've seen her several times since then, and... i can see so much pain in her eyes, i find it difficult to maintain my own composure.

then, there are the virginia tech. shootings. wow. i read an article in the paper about the professor who was a holocaust survivor, who basically gave up his own life in order to save his students. i don't know what else to say about it, except that it moved me. oh, that i would have that kind of love in me...

and then there are things.

i guess i'm thankful for the pain. i mean, i hate all of the circumstances that are causing the pain, but... You are a man well-acquainted with sorrows. so, if i am to be like You, then i must be well-acquainted with them too. please, help me not to numb myself.