Usually I’m a health coach, but today I’m just a person mourning a tragedy that’s touched everyone I know and many I don’t.

I love my city and have always been proud to be from the Boston area. ?And when something like the bombing at the Boston Marathon happens, it’s like a mortal wound to my soul. ?It hurts in a place that I can’t quite find – somewhere between my heart and my head. ?I try to make sense of it, but it’s impossible because there’s no sensible reason for something like this to happen.

I cried when I saw the picture on Facebook?of a happier Richard family celebrating dad’s birthday. ?A family of five reduced to four with two seriously injured. ?How do you reconcile that? ?If I even try to put myself in that family’s place, I know it’ll be months before I can pick myself up off the kitchen floor.

Like so many people out there, I want to help. ?I want to hug everyone who was there and tell them it will be all right – that things will get better. ?And with time, lots and lots of time, maybe it will.

Regaining balance isn’t going to be easy, but certainly not impossible. ?After all, we’re New Englanders. ?Everywhere you turn there’s a banding together of strangers forever bound by a common thread – our human spirits. ?This is where we dig down deep and try to hold someone else up. If we can do even one small thing to lighten someone else’s load, our own lives are somehow made better.

Until then, I’ll be spending my spare moments praying for everyone impacted by the irrational insanity that has rocked our city and hope for God’s grace to lift us up and heal our hearts.