Run.

I've been a bad blogger lately. Sometimes you get so busy living life, you don't have time to offer your reflections on it. But I will be back serving you my cheeze and whine!

In the meantime, with everything that has happened this past week in my hometown of Boston, I feel better about not being part of the internet feed of inundating everyone with more images and thoughts on a subject that is already so upsetting.

Sometimes we actually need to unplug to recharge. 

The world can be a terrifying place, and while the world wide web of blogs, social networking, and reddit news feeds can offer us all an outlet to express ourselves, share our fears, our experiences and knowledge, our thoughts, our theories, and our strength in the face of terror, it can also cause us all to become solitary and more obsessed. Obsessed not just with the horrors we are facing, but with ourselves and what we are saying and putting out there in this culture that craves "likes." 

Actions speak louder than words. Imagine if everyone who took to the internet to find solace through writing about things that were upsetting went out in the world to do a good deed or be a helper and healer?

It was said that it is human nature to run towards the blast. And the tragedy at The Boston Marathon appropriately taught us to run. Don't run away in fear or run towards the danger to photograph it, to comment on it, or continue to stare at it until the image drags you down in despair. Run towards it to help from wherever you are. And never stop helping. Even if it is a long, hard race to peace that seems impossible. We need to get up and be part of the run. We saw beautiful examples of this on Monday in Boston just as we have seen many times before when tragedy strikes. And as we are seeing in West Texas-another community suffering today.

There are no words or images that can help us understand why things happen or make us heal any faster but it is through our actions that we can get things done and be the good that we need in this world. So sign off and go out and join in the marathon to do good today and everyday. 

Just run.

This is Team Hoyt. Every native Bostonian or fan of the Boston Marathon knows of this father and son team who have run in the marathon 30 times. I stood on the side-lines every year waiting for them to go by and cheer and wave at them. They embody the spirit of the Boston Marathon and our need to keep moving for good even when things seem too hard or hopeless.