Some people believe in predestination--that everything happens because the whole plan of life was determined when the universe was created. There are also those who believe in God's (or whatever higher power you believe in) great plan for you--that He knows what your life is to be. Still others believe in the total randomness of events--that you can't control everything that happens, but do the best you can with what happens throughout life. And then there are people who believe that things happen "for a reason." That you go through your life's journey and make your own decisions, but that sometimes you can't answer that "Why do bad things happen?" question. You can only say, "Things happen for a reason" and you look for the silver lining in the cloud, pick yourself up by the bootstraps, and keep trudging forward.
Now I admit, I've been more in the "Random Thought" Camp throughout my years and have had wonderful debates over the different ways of looking at journeying through life with some very special people. I'm starting to open my mind to the "Things happen for a reason" explanation. Sure, I may think life is a series of random events, but if I think about it and truly reflect on it, over time I can see that silver lining when something bad happens. I can make something out of the randomness so that it becomes more meaningful to my life. I can apply these thoughts to the event and feel better in knowing that although something horrible has happened, I can go on with a positive outlook and apply my energy into what is most important to me. I become a stronger and wiser person.
In no way does this diminish the pain of loss or whatever the event was, but it gives me a focus--a way to apply positive energy into the healing process. To get past the grief and to look toward the future. To plan for a better "me" so that when something random comes my way, I can get through it with my head held high and with a happy heart. It just takes time. One day at a time.
P.S.: The definition of "silver lining" from Answers.com states that a silver lining is "a hopeful or comforting prospect in the midst of difficulty." It comes from the proverb [John Milton's drama, "Comus" in 1634] that can be paraphrased as every cloud has a silver lining. From the Idioms website at GoEnglish.com: "Be hopeful because difficult times always lead to better days."
P.P.S.: As a natural pessimist, I had to laugh when I found this about "silver linings" from The Phrase Finder: "Optimists see it that way. But we all know people who take the half-empty position, and they would remind us that every silver lining is surrounded by a big black cloud."
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Neat
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challenge at first because of so many rocks to climb straight up or down before getting to the actual flat mesa top trail, which is high above Barranca canyon on the right. I found the stair pathways up and down the rocks fascinating because of the foot marks ground into the soft tuff rock (photo, above right). I imagined the Ancestral Pueblo Indians carving those steps as they walked the route every day. 
Another fascinating structure was the "Deer Trap" that was roughly a 6 x 8 foot rectangle at around 5 foot deep (photo, left). I imagine that the Pueblo people would cover the trap with grasses or twigs and wait for an animal such as a deer to walk over it and drop into the trap, unable to get out and becoming the meal of the day. After walking on top of the rocks
for a while, the mesa top does widen out and a really nice trail takes you to the end. At the end of the trail is a lovely view of the mesas around Los Alamos, the Rio Grande Valley, and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains beyond (photo, above right). The round trip was just under 3 miles and took us a bit over an hour. 
One of my favorite things to do is to explore new places, especially if they include an outdoor adventure. My family was able to take the Sandia Peak Tramway in Albuquerque yesterday and explored the top of the mountain. It was kind of a spontaneous event since we originally were in Albuquerque to attend the annual Balloon Fiesta but the balloons never made it off the ground for the mass ascension due to high winds. So we thought we'd do something else in Albuquerque that day. We've lived in New Mexico for 10 years now and hadn't attended Balloon Fiesta or gone on the Tramway.
Of course, there's a lot of geology that I learned on this trip, which makes the adventure even better! The Sandia Mountains are a fault-block range on the eastern edge of the Rio Grande Rift Valley. The base of the tram is at about 6,500 feet elevation and is situated on a bedrock of Sandia Granite (photo, above right). The granite formed underground about 1.4 billion years ago, cooling slowly to give large crystals and phenocrysts throughout. It is rich in mica, potassium feldspar, and quartz. The feldspar is a pinkish color so the mountain actually "glows" pink at sunset. It's beautiful, for sure. I learned that "Sandia" means "watermelon" in Spanish, so the pink mountain is like the inside of the watermelon and the green conifer trees at the top of the mountain are like the green rind. And of course, watermelons are pinkish.
On the very top of the Sandia Granite is a cap of limestone that formed about 250 million years ago when the whole area was covered by an inland sea. So the granite basement rock had
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