Welcome to The Light, your quiet hour of reflection.
In Spain, grief has settled over the nation like a long shadow. At least sixty-nine people were killed and more than one hundred injured when a high-speed train collided in central Spain, one of Europe's deadliest railway disasters in recent memory. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has declared three days of national mourning, and a full investigation is now underway.
Across the ocean, Israel continues its careful count of nearly half a million absentee ballots, each one a small voice still waiting to be heard. The final shape of the government remains unresolved, and the world watches as democracy does what it so often must — wait, and reckon with uncertainty.
And in Canada, lawmakers are moving to draw a line around suffering. The government is seeking to prohibit medical assistance in dying when mental illness alone is the reason for the request, raising questions that philosophers, physicians, and families have long struggled to hold together — about despair, about dignity, and about what it means to care.
That's this hour's reflection. Carry the light gently.
