"I have no words."

"I have no words."

This has become my go-to phrase when I hear bad or sad news.  Because too often, there ARE no words that are going to express or sum up feelings.  And there are no words that are going to make things better.

Today, I want to tell you how and why I started using that phrase.

It was today, Christmas Eve, 2012, that a friend of mine posted a letter to Santa that his young daughter had written.  He captioned it, "I have no words." 

She'd written that she was sad because her friend from her Bible class had died.  She described her as being "very energetic." 

The little girl she was talking about had been murdered a few days ago.  She was nine, around the same age as my friend's daughter. 

What do you say?  What do you say when a nine-year-old girl has her life stolen from her just days before Christmas?  What do you say to a grieving mother?  To her family?  To the people who knew her and loved her? 

There is nothing you can say. 

There are no words. 

My friend's daughter simply expressed that "she was sad".   She asked for nothing from Santa Claus that year (except for him not to eat and drink in the living room.)

So when my friend found his daughter's letter to Santa and posted it, all he could add was that he had no words. 

For me, that summed it up perfectly. 

He had no words.

And that is why, when people share news of tragedy, I also have no words. 

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.