One idea that has risen repeatedly as I have monitored this thread, is the sense of shared loss, even with most of us not knowing Ezra or Meghan. The same occurs anytime any of us choose to post to ask for good thoughts regarding a loss or trevail.

They touch on each of our individual experiences of loss and as well as our own fears of loss, and the empathy resonates throughout the community, drawing us closer as we recognize our human connection. I have often thought about my sister's struggle with breast cancer and her death as I have read here, and taken time to think and reflect on Ezra and all who loved him. I have thought about how the experience within my family of that terrible time and that terrible loss also brought us together and opened our hearts to one another in ways that we had never before imagined.

I do not believe that there is any inherent meaning in loss, but I do believe we can and ought make meaning from these infinitely painful and frightening experiences that are integral to existence. We have the capacity to find gifts buried in the pain.

As John Donne wrote, "No man is an island. No man stands alone."

Becca and family, especially Meghan, and others who experience tough times or exquisite pain, and then post here to ask for support, also understand that in doing so you give a gift to us who respond or read, and strengthen our connectedness to one another and to the whole.

Hope this has made sense.

Blessing and light.

Janie