What can we do?

When loss and sadness envelops, we, as compassionate human beings, have an innate need to help. To reach out. To provide solace in some small way. 

I know each and every one of you hugged your children a little longer and a tad tighter this weekend. I know most of you said more prayers this weekend than is your norm. And yet we still feel unsettled.  

We are simply left helpless and lost in our own form of grief for innocence lost.

So what can we do?

I posit that we can help those affected.

And ourselves by the following actions: 

Turn off the television. 

Watching and re-watching the horror unfold is not helping anyone, least of all the town of Newtown. We do not need to hear form every neighbor who knows a family who lost a child. We do not need to subject the surviving children to any further trauma. The media is only there because we are watching. The families affected and the entire community need time to grieve. In what little peace remains in Newtown, Connecticut. 

Lobby for reform. 

Whether you feel passionate about gun control or better care for those affected by mental illness, now is the time to scream it from the hilltops. Use social media. Call your congressman. Do whatever you feel led to do to spur change.  

Spread joy. 

We cannot undo what was done. And despite reform, we cannot eradicate the world of evil. We can, however, spread joy. We can be the good we want to see in the world.

Start small. Start at home. Show kindness to a stranger. Show kindness to every individual you encounter. Bring gifts to a needy family. Show love and compassion to a homeless person. To a troubled teen. To a friend who is feeling down.

The world desperately needs more joy.

Those in Newtown will not feel the joy today or tomorrow, but they need to be surrounded by a world in which joy exists.

We all do.

God bless you all this holiday season and in the coming year.
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For those looking for a monetary way to contribute or help those affected, you can give directly to the Sandy Hook School Support Fund.