Friday morning, while I was watching the news about the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, my mind was in turbo motion. All I could think about was those precious babies, and courageous teachers and staff, and the anger boiled up inside of my gut. At the time, society had more questions than answers, but we still wondered: how could someone be this demonic, what could he possibly accomplish from shooting down innocent children and adults at an elementary school? We knew nothing about the victims, yet I could picture faces in my mind. Little angelic faces full of life and the faces of the staff whose first thought was the safety of the students. Than of course, as it was about 10:00 am, I realized, my son is in school right now. I just need to go see him and squeeze him tight. I stopped myself, barely, from leaving work and pulling him out of school early, but I know I’m not the only one who had this same parental intuition.
The tragedy our country has endured has gotten me thinking about what I am thankful for in my life, as opposed to what I wish I could have to be thankful for. I think, especially this time of year, people tend to fall into the “I need it, I don’t have it yet” attitude, and forget about the “I have so much going on in my life, I am a lucky person” attitude. There’s the saying,” If you have food in your fridge, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of the world.” I think a lot of people, including myself at times, tend to forget these things. It puts a lot of things into perspective.
Sure, I wish I was a lot smaller. But I can’t just wish it; I have to work at it. What I am, though, is alive, with food in my fridge, (healthier stuff now) clothes on my back (which are shrinking) a roof over my head, and a place to sleep. I have wonderful people in my life who are some of the best people in the world, and I am grateful to have them be a part of my life. There are things in this world that I don’t have, and that’s okay too. I can’t live my life wishing for things that I don’t have, because than I forget about the things I already have.
Everyone have a great holiday!
Casey
