M is for MOXIE.

c/o @micahplayer

I inexplicably blinked awake last night around 3 a.m. and impulsively reached for my phone to check the time, when I saw the CNN alert about the Brussels terrorists attack. Paying no mind to the time, I texted a screenshot of the headline to one of my best friends who travels internationally for work all the time (she's in the states right now) and told her to be careful as much as she can be... knowing damn well she has zero control over anything like this potentially happening to her.

How do we do this, day after day? With each passing headline boasting yet another attack on humanity, and yet, we're forced to trudge through, resolving to never live in fear, all the while, there is a very evil demographic who lives among us, who cares nothing about the value of human life... it's just so heartbreaking. It feels so hopeless, and terrifies me to have children in a world where the only predictable factor is that this level of tragedy will happen again. And again and again, and again and again after that.

I hurt for the victims who were just living their typical day-to-day lives, trekking to work or school. I hurt for those who now live in fear each day. I hurt for those who are fearful for practicing their religion. I hurt for those who are growing up without parents, siblings, children, friends. I hurt for those in Littleton, Oklahoma City, Boston, Sandy Hook, Aurora, Garland, Fort Hood, at Virginia Tech, in Paris, Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran--ALL over the Middle East, in war-torn Africa and beyond. I heard on NPR yesterday, something like "terrorism is what happens when people live in fear of living their normal day-to-day lives." So in essence, we're eradicating terrorism everyday when we fight to keep our routines, right? I guess that's a bleakly hopeful summing up of what has become an all too common reality of present day life.

Regardless of my futile attempt to make sense of this, my heart breaks for everyone impacted by this morning's events in Brussels. I pray desperately for a better tomorrow.