I pray for those we have lost but more personally for those who have lost - the families of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and so many before you. I know how it feels to get that call that someone you love isn't coming home.

We are each of us born into the arms of mortality, the Lord recognizing our need to be held.

I'm really a very happy, contented little person in spite of my broken heart.

I can't cheer up — I don't want to cheer up. It's nicer to be miserable!

But pearls are for tears, the old legend says, Gilbert had objected. I'm not afraid of that. And tears can be happy as well as sad. My very happiest moments have been when I had tears in my eyes—when Marilla told me I might stay at Green Gables—when Matthew gave me the first pretty dress I ever had—when I heard that you were going to recover from the fever. So give me pearls for our troth ring, Gilbert, and I'll willingly accept the sorrow of life with its joy. -Anne

Does God care if I'm sad? Look at the tear-streaked face of Jesus as he stands near Lazarus's tomb.

We wept when we were born though all around us smiled; so shall we smile when we die while all around us weep.

God's goodness is not a cosmic force but a specific act of compassion. We do not know it as it is but as it happens. To mention an example, "Rabbi Meir said: When a human being suffers what does the Shechinah say? My head is too heavy for Me; My arm is too heavy for Me. And if God is so grieved over the blood of the wicked that is shed, how much more so over the blood of the righteous.

Grief was a vicious parasite. It had dug and clawed its way into my heart, feeding off the guilt raging through me. But I'd find a way to exterminate it.

There's no tragedy in life like the death of a child. Things never get back to the way they were.

Other people are going to find healing in your wounds. Your greatest life messages and your most effective ministry will come out of your deepest hurts.

I went out the door and suddenly I felt lonely and empty. I had treated seeing Catherine very lightly, I had gotten somewhat drunk and had nearly forgotten to come but when I could not see her there I was feeling lonely and hollow.