Peace

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.’

 Mother Teresa

I sat down to write today’s blog unsure of what I was supposed to write about. I decided to take a quick peek at the day’s news to see if the universe had any prompts for me.

One click into my search and my eyes fell upon these headlines  Gun Instructor’s Kids Have Words for Girl My breath caught as I anticipated what this could mean. I knew just what ‘girl’ the headline was referring to. A few weeks ago there was a shooting range accident involving a 9-year-old girl who lost control of a gun during a lesson with a highly trained instructor. This resulted in his death and on top of the tragedy that had taken place a furious debate ensued in several different directions regarding gun laws. I never mentally engaged with the debates, but I emotionally engaged with that child who now had to live with having taken another’s life, as well as with that instructor and his loved one’s whose lives had all changed in that moment.

So today, when I saw the headline, my breath caught because I knew that the children who released that statement are grieving the loss of a beloved father- and I  knew that pain like this either breaks us open, or makes us want to break others open. I only had to read the first ten words to know what direction it had taken them in. I sat there and cried as I read. I know, weeping over a news article sounds melodramatic… melodramatic or not, I wept. Each word these grieving children offered acknowledged that they all shared this loss together. They had lost their father, and this nine-year old girl had lost her peace. Every sentence was inclusive of the wisdom that they now belonged to each other… and that the only way to heal, was to heal together.

As I read their words, Mother Teresa’s words stirred in my mind, and I was reminded of the beautiful truth that peace can be ours- when we remember that we belong to each other.