Monday, December 17, 2012

Choosing Joy

Last week was a really fun and busy week. Thursday on the blog, I wrote "Who knows what the weekend has in store for us!"  Well, while Thursday evening (a baby shower and a fort awesome party) was a lot of fun, Friday was not. 

I check the news several times a day while at my computer at work, and unfortunately as you know, the news all day on Friday was about the mass shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut. I cried a lot at my desk on Friday, and then when I got home and watched CNN, I sobbed. And all weekend, it was all I thought about. The innocent kids who died, the teachers, the principal, the families of the victims who now have to "get through" what is supposed to be the most joyful time of the year, the police officers who were on the scene first and will forever live with the terrible things they saw when they arrived.... and the list goes on. 

We all know teachers. We all know 6 and 7 year old kids. Personally, I have several teacher friends, Chuck and I have nieces in elementary school, and my dad is an elementary school principal. Trying to imagine what the people in Connecticut are going through literally makes me sick to my stomach. 

Chuck has finals this week and we fly home on Thursday afternoon to be with family and friends for Christmas. I have to admit, I don't think we've ever wanted to be with our family more than we do right now.  We can't wait to be home and spend time with the people we love the most. 

Today I am still thinking about the tragedy but trying to not let it consume me the way it did this weekend. I read an article yesterday from Huffington Post shared by the minister of Middletown Christian Church on Twitter titled "How can you feel joy after Newtown shooting?" It's about choosing joy even during terribly sad and unfortunate times and it's helped me a little since reading it. Click here to read the article.

I hate to have such a sad and serious blog post but blogging about anything else right now seems trivial to me.

Have a Merry Christmas everyone, and please enjoy your time with family and friends.



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