The holidays will never, ever be the same for the families whose loved ones were tragically gunned down yesterday in Connecticut.
Life will never be the same for them.
If you are a parent, life is also likely different for you following Friday’s mass murder madness.
It can be.
It should be.
That is, if you are able to gain perspective from the senseless act of violence.
It’s one of life’s cruelest ironies: To gain perspective we must often lose something incredibly precious.
In the case of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, more than two dozen families lost their most precious possessions.
They lost their joy.
They lost their hearts.
They lost their babies.
Think about that the next time you lose your keys, your cellphone or your son’s left shoe.
Heartbroken parents in Connecticut are selecting the outfits they will bury their dead children in.
Think about them while you are choosing the outfits your sons and daughters will be wearing to their upcoming Christmas concerts.
Heartbroken parents in Connecticut will be removing unopened presents from under their Christmas trees.
Think about them while you are placing newly wrapped gifts under your tree.
Heartbroken parents in Connecticut will never again get to hear the sound of their dead child’s voice.
Think about them the next time your kid is screaming his head off.
Heartbroken parents in Connecticut will never again get to feel their child’s arms wrapped around them.
Think about them the next time your son clings to your leg because he doesn’t want to go to bed.
Heartbroken parents in Connecticut are pouring over pictures of the children they will never again get to see alive.
Think about them the next time you get so annoyed that your kids won’t pose for a family portrait that you don’t even bother getting out your camera.
Heartbroken parents in Connecticut wish they could turn back the hands of time.
Think about them the next time your day is going so horribly wrong you wish it were over already.
Think about all of those heartbroken families, whose unspeakable pain, allows parents like us to recognize how much we have to be grateful for.