Because I don't know how I will tell you,
or because I don't know if I am strong enough
to fight for the words,
I will say this:

When I was young I learned about tragedy.
I learned about loss on a scale that is unimaginable
unless you are there to see it, to breath it
and to be a sad living part of it.
I learned about hope, and courage,
and how the ordinary are extraordinary.
I learned that life is not a series of
tragic events, but a moment within where
you can find love and absolution.

How can I make you understand that this wasn't what
I wanted for you?
I didn't want to you to grow up in a world
that had once been so crippled by fear and
hate and pain and loss.
I wanted to give you the gift of peace,
like my parents wanted to give me.

How can I tell you that evil does not have a face,
but it does have an intention?
How can you possibly understand that
when everything is horrible we stand together
in the middle and embrace one another?
How?

There is so much that you will never see,
that I pray you will never have to learn.
What I want you to know,
indeed what I am struggling to tell you,
is that when everything seems darkest,
when everything is blood and dust and pain
and death, it is then, in that moment,
when we must
Hope the most.
It is then when we must
Love unconditionally.
It is then when we must always
be willing to let ourselves dream.

Because I don't know how to tell you,
because I don't want you to have to learn,
because I love you.