There are no words to express the horror of losing a child, though I’ve never lost a child I can empathize. I’ve lost month old siblings and I have children of my own. There are so many emotions going through me right now regarding the Sandy shooting.
I have sadness in my heart for the parents who now have to face this world minus the joy of their child being in it, parents who have presents under their Christmas trees with dead children’s names on them. There are parents who will no longer ever be able to feel a warm kiss, a tender hug, or listen to the soft breathing of their sleeping child. There are families out there right now whose Christmas’s will be missing a place setting at their dinner tables. My prayers go out to every person affected by this with the hopes to help them deal with this tragedy.
I have anger because a man fell through the loop holes of society yet again, who possibly wasn’t given the right amount of mental health. A man was allowed to walk onto a school campus filled with our most precious gifts and slaughtered them needlessly and the teachers who protected and sacrificed their own lives with those precious gifts. Anger because this won’t be the last time we see this crossing our News Headlines. http://news.msn.com/us/newtown-conn-school-shooting , http://news.msn.com/us/okla-student-arrested-in-alleged-school-massacre-plot , http://news.msn.com/us/man-arrested-after-50-shots-fired-in-calif-mall-parking-lot
I have a curious mind because all of this happened again…and again…and yet again. How do you stop such a thing? How do you prevent such a thing? How do you prepare for such a thing? YOU CAN’T! Now I’m not one for taking a NO as answer. I try to find ways to a YES answer. But we as a Nation have been trying and failing at finding the correct answers. We think we found a way and then we are hit again with the same outcome. First it’s hard metal music, it’s drugs, its bullying, it loose gun laws, it’s the parents, it’s the teenagers, its whatever you can find to blame it on that gives you comfort, but the bottom-line is, WE DON’T KNOW HOW OR WHY and that scares me to death. So we can not just be sitting ducks waiting for the hunter to pick us off.
With that, all we can do is, prepare our children for such an event. We teach them to stop drop and roll, get under the tables for earthquakes and get in the bathrooms for tornados. Well this is the worst disaster you can prepare them for. This killer might have a young kind face, he/she may look like a trust worthy person, but it’s the wolf in sheep’s clothing. We have to help them to not panic, to use their precious heads and to protect themselves. We also need to make sure that we teach them to always say “I Love You” whenever they depart from anyone they love. And we as parents need to make sure we hug them every chance we get, because you never know when that last one will come.
In closing, I’d like to leave a song and a poem with you, in remembrance of the Sandy Victims.
Charlotte Bacon (age 6), Daniel Barden (age 7), Olivia Engel (age 6), Josephine Gay (age 7), Ana M. Marquez-Greene (age 6), Dylan Hockley (age 6), Madeleine F. Hsu (age 6), Catherine V. Hubbard (age 6), Chase Kowalski (age 7), Jesse Lewis (age 6), James Mattioli (age 6), Grace McDonnell (age 7), Emilie Parker (age 6), Jack Pinto (age 6), Noah Pozner (age 6), Caroline Previdi (age 6), Jessica Rekos (age 6), Avielle Richman (age 6), Benjamin Wheeler (age 6), Allison N. Wyatt (age 6), Rachel Davino (age 29), Dawn Hochsprung (age 47), Anne Marie Murphy (age 52), Lauren Russeau (age 29), Mary Sherlach (age 56), Victoria Soto (age 27)…
A Child Loaned
“I’ll lend you for a little time
A child of Mine.” He said.
“For you to love the while he lives
And mourn for when he’s dead.
It may be six or seven year
Or twenty-two or three
But will you, till I call him back
Take care of him for Me?
He’ll bring his charms to gladden you
And should his stay be brief,
You’ll have his lovely memories
As solace for your grief.
I cannot promise he will stay
Since all from Earth return,
But there are lessons taught down there
I want the child to learn.
I’ve looked this wide world over
In my search for teacher’s true,
And from the throngs that crowd life’s lanes,
I have selected you;
Now will you give him all your love,
Nor think the labour vain
Nor hate Me when I come to call
And take him back again?
I fancied that I heard them say,
“Dear Lord, They will be done,
For all the joy Thy child shall bring,
For the risk of grief we’ll run.
We’ll shelter him with tenderness,
We’ll love him while we may,
And for the happiness we’ve known,
Forever grateful stay.
But should the angels call for him
Much sooner than we planned,
We’ll brave the bitter grief that comes
And try to understand.”
-Edgar A. Guest-
SheerChaos.net 