Tragedy

Today I am deeply saddened.  As a parent I am horrified by the recent school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in NewTown, CT.   Since first hearing about this incident I have not stopped crying.  I am sad for the families that have been affected and want desperately to hug my baby right now.  My daughter is in Kindergarten so it is really hitting home that this shooting took place in a Kindergarten classroom.  I think of how scared those children must have been when a masked man walked in and started shooting.  We teach our children that they are safe at school and that we would do anything to protect them.  They are so trusting and innocent.  They look to adults to protect and shield them.  So what happens when this fails to happen?  How do we begin to apologize and help them heal?  How do the adults heal?  How do those of us that were not directly affected move on and heal?  Do we have the right to be upset?  Because I am deeply upset and feel guilty that my Christmas holiday will go on as planned while other families are planning funerals for children that shouldn't be gone. 

But let's talk about the adults that kept the majority of those kids safe!  Teachers that are SEVERELY underpaid and yet put their lives on the line protecting our future generation.  That is a hero in my opinion.  Reports of a teacher that locked herself and her students in a bathroom and eased their fears, telling them that they will have Christmas.  It is easy to say that you would lay down your life for your own child or children but it's a special person that does it for someone else's.  So here's to them!  A small glimmer of hope in humanity during such a horrific event.  It is so easy to lose hope in humanity when something so disturbing happens but we need to remember the heros. 

I cannot begin to imagine what goes through the mind of a person that thinks of killing children.  What enables them to think that it's a viable option or ok in some way.  Normal people can't rationalize it because the kind of person that does that is irrational.  As a nation we are once again grieving.  A mere three days since the shooting in Portland and a few short months since the shooting in Aurora CO.  How do we move forward?  All of these questions that I can't answer.  I am a mother, how do I explain this kind of evil?  Where are the words to describe this?  I have the instinctual need to hug my daughter right now and take comfort in the fact that she is ignorant to what is happening right now.  She is playing at school happily and blissfully unaware.  And I am glad.  She is merely 5 and thankfully will remain unaware.  For that, I am thankful.

I will not be posting a normal post today regarding the food I ate and my workout.  It seems too trivial in the face of such tremendous grief.

Krissy