one month later.

It's been a month since the Sandy Hook shootings. Not many news things affect me like this one has. Yesterday, my nephew was playing around and then fell on the floor and said, "I'm dead!" and immediately I said "G-d forbid" and explained to him that that's not funny. But for a split second, I could see those tiny bodies laying in classrooms or next to a teacher. Mickey Mouse shirts or little Uggs. His little body, sprawled on the floor, hit it home for me. I cannot even begin to fathom what the first responders had to witness and work with. TIME magazine voted Obama as "Man of the Year." Give me a fucking break. Aside from politics, The 6 teachers that died protecting the school and students have done more than he will ever do. The teachers who hid their students in closets and locked them into bathrooms and huddled under desks with them - these are the real heroes. In Judaism, there is a saying that if you save one life, it is like you have saved a world - because of all the things that person will do to create a ripple effect. 26 worlds were destroyed a month ago. Countless others are still picking up pieces, trying not to panic while walking in school, or saying goodbye to their other children while an empty bedroom continues to whisper.

I'm volunteering at my nephew's kindergarten class for a little bit as a "teacher's aide" on Wednesday. For the first time ever, I feel stirrings of nerves about going into a school. Has it really come to this, getting buzzed in at elementary schools, metal detectors in middle and high schools, requiring students to wear ID badges......my school days were very different, and I'm thankful for that. It seems like such an innocent time period. Well, it WAS before Columbine.

I guess I'm just trying to sort this all out in my head; I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about those who were killed, and what their families must be going through. Maybe it's my psychology background, I don't know. Maybe it's my love of children. But I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the horror of that day.
Pura Vida bracelets are handmade bracelets that create jobs for local Costa Ricans and donate money to various charities. They have a Sandy Hook bracelet for $5 and 100% of the proceeds go to the Sandy Hook Family Foundation. This provides ongoing support for the 26 families who lost loved ones. Unfortunately, it's not green and white, the school colors, but it is a light aqua color. When asked, PV replied that the color reminded them of angels. So why not, instead of that latte you were gonna buy, buy one of these instead. Things can change in an instant. A month ago, 26 families found that out in the most brutal way ever.