Being Grateful in the Wake of Tragedy: Is it Possible?

The Christmas season for most is a time of joy. Unfortunately for one Stamford, Connecticut family, Christmas Day ended in tragedy. Accomplished advertising executive, Madonna Badger, sadly lost her three young daughters and her parents to a house fire in the early hours of Christmas morning reportedly due to unattended embers in one of the home’s fireplaces.

When news of this tragedy broke, I immediately felt nauseous. It couldn’t have been true. Not on Christmas.

As details emerged, my heart ached and I could do nothing but look at my own family and think of how fragile life is and how quickly it can change. I even thought of my friends and their families. What, if anything, needed to be said? Was there anything we could do right then and there to safe guard against a similar tragedy happening to us? I didn’t know. Thoughts of this, naturally, flooded my mind throughout the day, but there was nothing I could do but be grateful that such devastation avoided the homes of those I love and care for.

I believe there is nothing I can say that can truly console Mrs. Badger or her family. In the wake of such an incredible loss, I don’t even want to begin to imagine what she and her husband must be feeling. But this leads me to the question of whether or not it is possible to be grateful when you’ve experienced such tragedy.

I honestly don’t know if I could be grateful. Perhaps I could reclaim a sense of gratitude over time, but how long would it take? I imagine the blaring questions in my mind would be: Why? Why me? What have I done to deserve this? Am I being tested?

There are no definitive answers. To cope, some might prescribe leaning on faith and others may say that this is simply nature taking its course. Either way, I believe my options would be to face the coming days or not.

I would like very much to believe that Mrs. Badger is a woman of incredible strength; that she has the courage and fortitude to look deep within and see purpose remaining, if only by a thread. This is what I hope for her as she and her husband have been spared. I could say that there is a reason behind everything or that things just happen. I don’t know.

I do know that for the life I have, I am grateful. I have adopted a Grateful Brand, which is the inspiration for this blog and for this fledgling movement. In spite of what has been, what is and what has yet to come, I want the Universe to know that, deep in my core, I want to be grateful, but I am human. In the wake of such tragedy as experienced by Mrs. Badger, I do not know if I could face the coming days, yet it is my sincerest hope that she can.

If nothing else, I hope that she can see that the day, in itself, is a gift to be grateful for. 

I would like to thank:
Huffington Post and Matt Friedman of Associated Press