Broken

When I was a little girl, you could walk to school without fear.  You could play on the school playground regardless if school was in session or not.  You could walk to your friend's house or play in the yard, using the street lamp as your indicator it was time to head home.  I had a wonderful childhood and lived in a world without fear - my children will never be able to say the same thing.

Today, the school flags are flying at half mast.  There were police officers out front during student drop off and they will patrol the hallways.  I am so very thankful for them, protecting my daughter while I can not, but I am gutted that we need them to guard our schools.

Friday my heart broke into a million pieces - for the babies who left this world too soon, for the heroes who saved those still here and for the entire community of Newton, Connecticut.  We were not the only ones in pain that day as some madman wounded over twenty children in front of a school in China that day as well.  People try to put a band-aid on it and say there was "mental illness" - of course there was because no one in their right mind would do such a thing.  Other people are blaming the guns and laws surrounding them - last time I checked, it took a person to make a gun fire.

We, as a nation and as a world, have lost sight of what is important.  We have turned our back on that which gives us strength, guidance, compassion and understanding.  In a world full of instant gratification, full of self-proclaimed entitlement, it's become a scary place.  We, as a whole, need to spend more time caring for others instead of ourselves, then there would be no room for the actions of this past week.  We are broken and lost and I fear for our future.

May those we lost on Friday be at peace and those who were left to carry on find strength in a nation who grieves with them.  May we finally lift each other up and work together - to protect our future... our children.