Second-guessing

My Niece Adalynn Grace at the Beach

I've been second-guessing myself, lately: not just in blogging, but there is that. So much pain in the world, and I don't feel inclined to write at length about any of it. Am I wrong, I wonder, because I don't have much to say regarding the headlines? And in all fairness, I guess any blogger could read between the lines of the blogosphere and allow guilt to rest upon his or her shoulders for not writing about a certain something in a certain way, or for writing about one thing in favor of another.

The post I'd planned to write, next, includes the last photos from our July vacation in Lancaster, but I've hesitated. I've hesitated because every time I think of Lancaster, I think of the Amish, and every time I think of the Amish, I think of the seven- and twelve-year-old girls abducted from their family's farm stand and assaulted sexually. I've wondered if it's appropriate to share the photo of our pretending to be Amish at Dutch Wonderland when, up near Canada, there's a very real Amish couple whose daughters have been violated. Their reality is one of my worst nightmares.

I've wondered, in general, if it's appropriate to share my family's blessedness when there's so much trouble in the world, and I don't know. What I do know is: when I'm feeling depressed by the headlines (as I have, lately), it helps me to take and study photographs of my children. They're safe, right now. They're happy, right now. And who knows for how long? I'm earnestly grateful for our surviving--for our thriving!--thus far.

I'm going to blog out the rest of my summer photos and try not to feel guilty for all we don't suffer. I blog primarily to document for my children, and for them I write: not everyone is so blessed. The list of people for whom I'm praying grows longer and longer even as you laugh, swing, and build fairy houses in our back yard. I love you and hope you will always be so happy and that, somehow, the world will right itself and laugh along with you.