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Monday, December 17, 2012

A Prayer



I am here…trying to reconcile our beautiful Christmas tree, the joy of having our daughter home and the gift of this season, to the heartbreak occurring less than 150 miles away. 

We were oblivious Friday…driving up the highway with a CD of holiday carols playing in the car, Christmas shopping before picking up our daughter after her last exam…taking her out to lunch to celebrate the end of her semester.  We wouldn’t have heard at all that day, except we got stuck in a plug of congestion at a nasty stretch of highway and turned on the radio to catch a traffic report.

It happens like that…in an instant.  Life plummets to a place we never understood it could go.  We were three people driving in a car…one dozing in the back seat, two in the front urging the road toward home.  The radio delivered the news and we were irreparably changed.  Sitting in the dark, surrounded by yellow beams and trailing tail lights…we agonized that a similar horror could come closer to home than the short New England miles separating us and the most recent tragedy.  As parents, we breathe the weight of pain.  We comprehend that each moment with our loved ones is tenuous…that what we hold tight and dear can disappear in a second.  We imagine ourselves in the place of those in Connecticut.  And we grieve.

Oh God, please make these things stop.  Please bless the families.  Please envelop them with some kind of peace.  Help them make it through. And when you are done…please help the rest of us too.

12 comments:

~Sia McKye~ said...

It was horrible news. How do you console someone who has lost someone but especially a little one.

I was working a long day Friday. I didn't even have a break to listen to the news. I actually spoke to a customer who had a child at that school--upper grades. She's the one that told me about what happened. All thoughts of customer service flew right out of my head as we chatted for a bit.

Awful.

Old Kitty said...

Amen, Liza, amen.

Take care
x

Anonymous said...

This kind of thing has got to stop, where did our world go so wrong that being remembered as a mass murderer followed by committing suicide has its appeal?

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Amen - please help the families find peace.

Susan Flett Swiderski said...

Amen. When will it stop?

Jennifer Shirk said...

Yes.

I was out shopping all day and didn't hear the news until got home and on Twitter.

So crazy and so sad.

Robin said...

I feel absolutely terrible for all of those families. This has been yet another reminder to tell everyone that we love that we love them ~ again.

Johanna Garth said...

It puts everything in perspective. Holiday stresses, arguing children, suddenly all you want to do is make it all better for the families of the victims.

Umā said...

Amen.

Carol Kilgore said...

Simple but beautiful prayer. Friday's tragedy slammed home how tenuous life is. Those we love can be gone all too soon.

mshatch said...

Makes one a little more appreciative. I hope your prayer is heard.

Susan Gourley/Kelley said...

I still feel the disbelief and anger that has no one to strike out at.