Today echoes with phrases like “senseless tragedy,” “searching for answers” and “multiple fatalities.” The same words we’ve said before – our hearts are with them, our hearts are breaking, we send our thoughts and our prayers, how could it happen in a place like this, a nation shocked, a nation grieving… all the same words we have said before and all the same words we will say again.

I couldn’t bear to take a photograph today.

This photograph is from September 11, 2011. Taken at Lighthouse Beach, a father carefully, gently hands a starfish to his daughter. They are reverent in the exchange.

And this is what I want to say – that life is strong and tenacious, like a starfish clinging to the jetty in the cold tides. And life is fragile and can be held in the palm of the smallest hand.

Handle it with care and with reverence. Never fail to take it for granted.

Prints are available at Ali Crehan Photography.