Many Americans are feeling lost after the horrific mass shooting in Las Vegas on Sunday night that killed at least 59 people and injured more than 500 others.
How can you pick up and move forward in the wake of a national tragedy? What can we do to prevent massacres in the future? It can all seem so overwhelming, but it's important to know we're not alone. On Tuesday, Oprah Winfrey opened up to Entertainment Tonight about how she, too, is struggling to process recent events.
"I have to tell you, I feel the same way the whole country feels," she said. "I feel like my soul is aching for the country."
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Psalms 61:2... when my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. #prayingforlasvegas
— Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) October 3, 2017
But Winfrey believes that there is hope even in the most trying of times if we'd only just look for it in even the most mundane-seeming routines.
"There's not a day that goes by where I'm not putting on my shoes, or brushing my teeth, where I just think about the ordinariness of, people who just went to a concert, or the ordinariness of the day people from 9/11, who were just doing an ordinary thing, and then you never get home," she said. "So, I would say that these days a crisis and tragedy are to remind us all to be present in the ordinariness of our lives, that actually turns out to be extraordinary, when the person you love doesn't come home at night."
Winfrey later implies that it's that same ordinariness, coupled with faith, that will help grieving families and communities continue to move forward and to dedicate every single day to showcasing the same selflessness, compassion, and empathy as we do after tragedies.
"I would say, we can't allow ourselves to be frightened into not living our lives, and I think that we have to keep going and we have to keep going with the faith that things will get better," she said. "And things will get better when we make them better."