I don’t have to know the who, how or why to grieve the harm done at the Boston Marathon.

I weep.  I hurt.  I ache for the pain of the Sandy Hook parents who were there to run 26 miles for 26 lost lives.

In grief I try to school and soothe myself by looking through the lens of history.  Throughout history, broken people try to break others. Those who have been harmed visit their harm on others. Harm tries to find its own watermark.

I was just thinking that maybe the Medici Family was visited by random harm as they pursued their interests in the 15th Century. And the familiar tale of the good Samaritan is in the context of that road being known to be dangerous. Harm lurking, causing concern. The broken people have always brought harm to themselves and others…but now, with dense population centers and immediate access to news, tender hearts meet a perfect storm of sorrows. Increasing inclination and immediate access. In fact, the “immediate access” is incentive for some of the broken ones. 15 minutes of “fame.” All heart breaking.

So my prayers, attention, emotional support and all goodness go to the people who are bleeding. The people who were harmed. The people who stood as witness to this travesty.  The runners whose hopes and dreams and calendar and resources are tied to this historical, national event.  The perpetrators?  To you I stand away.  I will not fuel your celebrity be turning my head to look long at you.  Sorrow multiples and I can only wish that you, the bringers of harm, find new equations that do not add to an equation already filled with pain.

Boston – my heart aches for you, and yours, today.