requiescat in pace, baby gianna

My niece — Gianna Anne Kolles — was born, lived, and died today. We were able to be there with her parents, sisters, and grandparents; her delicate birth, short life, and swift death are an intimately rich, tragic, and powerful testament to the beauty and sufficiency of life, especially the life of human persons. She will be given a Christian funeral and burial this Thursday. Please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers. Events such as these remind me, and should remind us all, of what is truly important — and how immensely difficult and bittersweet it is to dwell and fully be present, to truly live and die in the eternal flux of real life and death.