Less than Twelve Parsecs

The early days of parenthood brought us many joys, as well as a lot of problem solving. One of the hardest parts was trying to figure out what our tiny newborn needed when she was awake. The solution they gave us in all the books and at the hospital was: Try everything! First a feeding, then burping, then a diaper change, then holding her for comfort and bonding. A simple enough blanket solution. It worked, but it's like finding your kitchen flooded with water when you wake up in the morning and trying to fix it by first checking the mailbox, then wiping the dust on the TV, then opening and closing the bedroom door a few times, and only after that turning off the water faucet. The sequence works, but it's exhausting and highly inefficient because you rarely start with the right step. Yet you are sleep deprived and hungry and afraid of doing anything that might hurt the baby so you just try everything and hope. Had anyone told me that I would soon learn what Mar

World love -  http://world-love.appspot.com/ Good friends of ours are currently going through the hardest times people could ever face. I've faced that feeling of helplessness and loss last year when my father suddenly passed away. It was the time when I found it hardest to go on with my life. I was simply unable to comprehend the why, and it shocked me to emotional paralysis. I still did everything I was expected to do but carried it on with an empty, numb heart. I was a functioning shell of a human being for a while. What got me through that experience was recognizing how much my father loved me and how much I shared in that love. I shortly started noticing through that wall of sadness how the closest people to me had reached out with their hearts trying to get me through it. It started with an unrelenting physical and emotional embrace by Greg, who in the next days silently did everything I could not. It continued with my brother Alex whom I saw as I came off the