My friend J called to tell me that her mother passed from this earth peacefully this morning. She said she was there with her and it was "actually quite a beautiful thing." Her words. May we all be so blessed.
After the horrible events of yesterday, I'm feeling like I don't know what to do, that my children will never be safe anywhere, and I'm struggling with how to talk to them about it, how to help them process it so that they don't end up not feeling safe ever. What do I say to them? How can I even talk to them when my heart is breaking with grief for those parents, when I keep picturing what if it had been one of my kids? Well, I keep saying them, but mostly it's Trout. How do I raise her to have the grace and strength to deal with my eventual death (or anyones, for that matter) in such a way that she can see it as a "beautiful thing"? How, with stuff like what happened at Virginia Tech yesterday coloring her perception of the world?
Peace, and strength, be with all of their families. J's, too.
I think of school (well, my school anyway) as such a safe place, so linking something as violent as shooting to a place that I find so safe is horrible.
Posted by: thethinker | April 17, 2007 at 07:01 PM