Making your Dash Count

December 14, 2012

There is no sense to be made of the senseless.  The innocent life lost.  It is hard to understand this level of loss..  I can only think of it parent by parent.  My heart is with each of the parents of the slain children from Sandy Hook Elementary.

Tomorrow is not promised, so we need to take the time to be with the people we love, share in their passions and cheerlead their endeavors. We need to appreciate and love our kids today at their ball games and concerts and at home at the kitchen table. And our fast lane kids? They need that love and attention that much more because they are at greater risk. Although they think they are invincible, they too can be plucked from life at any moment. As parents, we cannot forget that.

When our children die, we try to maintain as normal a life as possible, but this is a new normal. This new normal does not include the giggles and sparring between siblings. This new normal does not include the sparkling energy that our children add to our lives. this new normal does not include innocent gullibility and the carrying on of family traditions.

Instead, parents gain an appreciation of our old normal that we never recognized, while in it.