My friend Marci sent me a text on Friday night and said, “OMG. Terrorist attack in France.” I immediately opened the browser on my phone and checked CNN. I was sickened to read the news of what was going on in Paris. It’s so crazy to think that while you’re standing in the middle of the grocery store picking up Parmesan cheese for dinner that someone across the world is shielding themselves from gunfire and praying to survive. I stood in the middle of that store and just repeated the word “love” over and over as a prayer.

I felt extra grateful on Friday night to be sitting around the table with my parents and grandmother sharing a meal in the warmth and relative safety of my grandmother’s house. I also felt unsettled imagining what the people of France must have been feeling at that exact moment.

I often avoid addressing these types of events on my blog because it feels incredibly insensitive to talk about them and then follow it up with something like, “but here’s what I ate this week” or, “check out this workout” when so many are grappling with unimaginable loss and devastation. It also seems insensitive to only address the events that impact us in the Western world when there is so much senseless violence and hate taking place every day so many other parts of the world.

This came up a few months ago after the horrible Charleston church shooting when a reader questioned me for not mentioning it on my blog. I guess today I just want to say that it’s not that these horrific events don’t touch me deeply, I just don’t know how to give them the credit and respect that they deserve in a way that feels honest, inclusive and authentic on this public forum.

My worldview is not so small that I think what I ate and how I worked out are in any way significant in the grand scheme of things but I do believe in the power of love and strength. The reason that I put my work out into the world is to empower others to love themselves, spread love to others and to believe in their strength and ability to transform their lives. It’s my hope that as we raise the vibration of love and strength within ourselves that it will spread out into our communities and around the world.

My thoughts, prayers and healing energy are with the people of France. And I am sending love and strength to all the citizens of this world.

All of my love,
Jen