It’s a juggling act we all wrestle with, I think. And, right now, with the world in chaos and many of us consumed by the news of war in Israel, it is hard to balance. When so many lives have been lost and so many more are at risk, how do we go forward, how do we continue with our daily priorities, how do we conduct “business as usual” when the world is anything but “business as usual?”

The current of worry and concern does not go away, it runs like low voltage under and within everything that we do, every breath that we take. But if we allow our fears to paralyze us, if we allow our anxiety to overrun us, then, I think, we have let the terrorists win.

Part of a campaign of brutality and inhumanity, part of a world wide cry for “a day of hate,” is the desire to control both the narrative and the reactions of others. Letting that determine our actions and our choices is ceding our power to those who should not, who must not, have it.

In the face of tragedy in our own lives, we grieve and we mourn and we decide how we will go forward. Will this loss color every day of our lives with bitterness? Or will we decide that while we will not forget the pain and anguish, we must continue to embrace life?

In a similar way, we must continue to be grateful for every day that we are given, we must continue to pray and support that which we believe in, we must live our lives with strength and purpose and courage. We must hold up our heads, hold one another’s hands and strive to always hold a full heart.