It's tiring to be this sad.
It might even be too tiring to find a better word than 'sad' when we look around the world, the region, or the streets we live on.
Disappointing? Unfamiliar? Changed? Uncertain? Scary?
Sad.
Wars, violence, human suffering, petty crime ... it's hard to find places to turn. It's tiring. The images and information of unfolding tragedies and hardships are exhausting to take in.
But there is brightness out there; events that can perhaps distract us from the tireless barrage of the troubled world around us — and some of that brightness will be amplified in the coming days.
This week there are combined reasons to celebrate for many residents of the Lakeland region and billions of others across the globe. The days in the continuing holy month of Ramadan converge with Easter celebrations in the coming week. They are two immense reasons for celebration and joy that directly affect more than 40 per cent of all the people on this planet.
To have almost half of the world celebrating should make us overcome with joy and exhausted from the festivities and happiness that these holiest of times bring.
But we continue to hear the tragedies, that pull us entirely away from that joy — or force us to share celebration with sadness.
As children weave yellow and pink strips of ribbon around festive baskets, a community wraps blue ribbons around trees to remember fallen officers. As a community fasts to cleanse the body and mind to bring in more compassion and love, a war to eradicate an entire country's population continues.
It's sad.