When there is a tragedy, how can we participate in an event that is happy and light and cheerful...
I've finally come to accept the realization that these are two separate things and as such the response to each is in accordance with the event and appropriate to it. You cannot mix the two. Our lives are constantly dealing with tragedies - some big, some small, some devastating, some manageable, but tragedies nevertheless. There are also good, happy things happening around us. If we mix these up, or feel guilty about not feeling bad, and resentful that we cannot enjoy the good, then it totally nullifies the importance of both - the sad and the happy, the good and the bad. Send out your deepest feelings and energies to the event that is tragic. Do all that is in your power to help, and then leave it. Just as you wouldn't want to appear happy in a tragic situation, so too, you would not want to color a happy situation with shades of black. So in the happy milieu, laugh with the best of them and spread the energies of happiness.