street corner musings.

i find myself on sidewalks a lot these days. standing on street corners. waiting for buses. and since i’m waiting around a lot, i’ve got time to think. and people watch too, of course.

today i was waiting at a bus stop and flipping through the news apps on my phone, catching up on the latest info coming out of colorado… the horrible shootings that occurred last night when a masked man walked into a movie theater and opened fire, killing 12 and wounding others.

I stood there, on that street corner, and looked around. across the street, 3 men sat outside a pizzeria, laughing and carrying on with each other. people rode by on their bikes, no doubt getting off from work and ready for their friday night to begin. everyone just doing their own thing. living their life. and thousands of miles away in colorado, families are forever changed because of the act of violence one man decided to unleash in a public place.

a few days ago, the same violence was news in bulgaria, where a suicide bomber killed himself and others. and in so many other countries violence occurs daily. i stood there, thinking about all these people i don’t know all around me, and all of the people all across the world whose lives have changed in an instant.. unknowingly, life as they once knew it is gone. and now they are faced with the reality of learning how to adapt to a completely new way of living.

while i have not been a victim of violence lately, i have faced unexpected moments when life as i knew it ceased to exist. some of the changes i brought on myself, and some of them have happened to me. but, changes will happen. they are inevitable. changes are what life is all about. the question is, how am i gonna handle them? how am i gonna react?

as i stood on that street corner, i pondered all these things, and my heart ached to have everyone i love around me in that moment, so i knew that they were safe. but i stood there alone. watching life happen all around me. and then i smiled.

yeah. this is what it’s all about. learning to live with and appreciate each other. learning to never take one single moment for granted. soaking up everything good around us, and working to spread joy, not hate. i can’t change what’s happened in colorado, but i can make a difference wherever i go… i can decide how i will face and deal with life, how i will treat others, and whether i will live a life of love, non-violence, & peace. or not.

i looked around one more time. my bus was coming. time to meet up with my love.

be safe. peace, my dear friends.