One cannot always be a hero, but one can always be human. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Last week was one to strain the heart. There were the ordinary trials and tribulations associated with being human all-too-human. And then there was the violence, the terror, the terrible thing piled upon the other terrible things that happen in this world, our world, too often, more often than is tolerable. Such is life, now; such has it ever been. The only way through such weeks, really, is to remind ourselves and each other – through our words and through our actions – of our humanity. To hug and talk and cry and worry and fret and assert and hope, out loud. And then to hug and talk and cry again.

We don’t need heroes. Heroes would be nice, but heroes – the super kind, anyway; the kind that leap over tall buildings in a single bound; the kind that are extraordinary, amazing, superhuman, not our kind – are not what we need, not really. We just need each other, and to remember that we’re all that we have. And that we’re all that it takes to make a difference.

— How I got this photo: snapped with iPhone camera, edited in Snapseed (Tune Image to increase brightness and ambience; run through Drama filter at 50%; run through Tilt Shift), uploaded through Instagram (no filter or frame).