8/6/17
I just watched an interview with parents who lost children in the Sandy Hook shooting.  They shared what they have been doing to keep the memory of their children alive in a constructive way.  They talked about how they went to Washington to speak to the need for common sense gun laws that would require background checks, etc.  They spoke about how it felt when that was defeated.

One mom just said "HOW...how, could that happen?"

Nonetheless, she went home and started Sandy Hook Promise....here's the link if you're interested in connecting as I have (www.sandyhook.org).  Another set of parents does care packages in their son's name.  Another wrote 2 albums and won a Grammy.

But, the one that touched me the most told of the message at her daughter's funeral. The pastor spoke of how this is the winter of their lives but Jesus was walking with them and, in time, spring would come.

When the host asked if spring had come yet, she said no...she wondered when it would...but she KNEW some day she would see God and her little girl and hear the 2 phrases she most wanted to hear:

"Well done, good and faithful servant."

"Hello, Mom."

Just, "hello, mom."

In honor of these parents and their children, I repost what I wrote on the year anniversary of the shooting.


12/13/13
One year ago.  I know there is so much to touch upon when remembering Sandy Hook but my mind and heart land here.

I listened to an interview on NPR with the priest who was the first at the Sandy Hook school one year ago when children were gunned down. He did eight of the funerals.  He has trouble sleeping.  He has been to PTS sessions. He has found counsel.

 He is doing all he can to walk his grief in a healthy way so that he can be healthy for those who continue their journey of grief.

Because that journey continues for those touched by this violence.

The interviewer then asked him if this made him doubt God.  He said “no”.

He said if it made him doubt anything, it was people and their ability to hurt one another.

It made him wonder also at the collective ability of “our culture” to accept violence.

We do, you know.

We accept violence.

We watch it as entertainment. We play it in games.  We discuss it in the news.  We defend it in the courts. We argue over it in politics.

We find reasons why it is okay to watch it or play it or discuss it or defend it or argue over it.

Because it is too damn hard to do anything else.

God, I hate that I am one of this culture who does that.

So, in 2014 I shall attempt to speak out more. 

I shall continue to advocate for stronger gun control.  I shall talk to my grandchildren about the real violence that I see in pretend gaming and entertainment. I shall express my grief at the hurt that so many experience in “our culture”.  I will try to tell them why I feel as I do so that they can begin to form their own whys.

In other words, I shall, at the very least, give VOICE to these nudges (which today feels like a push).

I am NO Mandela or MLK or Mother Teresa or or or…

…BUT I do know that it is only through their voices that ANYTHING changed.

Their voices were stronger and smarter and braver than mine BUT I do have a voice.

I need to use it.

I encourage you to do the same if/when you feel nudged.

And to hold me accountable.

Please.

The children lost to violence and the families left in the wake of that violence deserve, at least, that much.

As do the children who are still here.


8/6/17

Three years later, the violence continues.  And my little voice seems nothing more than a whimper. But whimper, I can, even though it seems easier to turn off the TV, to mute the pain of it all.

Tempting, isn't it?

But, after seeing the interviews, I NEED to remember on behalf of those parents whose children are no longer here...

....and on behalf of those parents whose children ARE here, parents who might be moved to use their voice simply because everyday they DO hear,

"Hello, Mom."