The Shadows Prove The Sunshine Tue, Jul 19, 2016

Baton Rouge, Minnesota, Dallas, Orlando, Paris, Turkey, Baghdad and most recently Nice, France. Unfortunately, all of these cities are now have connotations that eclipse their local attractions, famous cuisine or beautiful architecture. It's no secret that, thus far, the first half of 2016 has been profoundly painful and unrelentingly heartbreaking. 

Monitoring and scrolling through social media streams is an amazing job for a Millennial...most of the time. It's the times in the aftermath of a tragedy where it's impossible to immerse myself in the work day and blissfully avoid the news of rising death counts, stories of the survivors and images of grieving friends and family.

Twitter, Facebook and Instagram feeds are littered with beautiful remembrances of lives lost and gut-wrenching reminders of a very broken world. Even still, social media or not, the reminders are ever-present in the wake of a tragedy and it's easy to be consumed with an overwhelming feeling of both hopelessness and helplessness. 

It's impossible to understand why things happen the way that they do, but I've taken solace in remembering that "the shadows prove the sunshine". Tragic loss and social injustice brings people together like nothing else can. Find the shared humanity, seek the course for change, love harder and without circumstance. Don't dwell in the darkness, seek the light as often as possible.