# 380 - Day of Devastation

Newtown, Connecticut unwillingly became world news today after one of their elementary schools encountered a crazed shooter who had even shot his own mother, then headed to the local elementary school to kill innocent children between the ages of 5-10, along with more adults gunned down in the school, principal included.

I cannot fathom any evil being darker than a person who is able to walk into an elementary school and gun down child after child after child and adults, destruction at its most debased level.

I cannot imagine being an adult of such heavy responsibility while in the midst of young children being slaughtered, the overwhelming urge to protect them is known as you realize your job might require you to forfeit your life in such service.

Christmas is near, school holidays are almost at hand, and this school, like all others around this nation, was full of the joyful anticipation attached to this beautiful holiday. This should have been a happy time with a holiday approaching for these children to spend more time at home, with their families. Instead, this will be a time when many of these families will be preparing for funerals.

For many families who lost loved ones in this massacre today, there won't be a joyful anticipation of opening Christmas presents in a few days because they will instead be wrapping up the most precious parts of their lives with finality, enclosing a future lost and burying potential.

As a mom, I cannot grasp the depths of such horror, tragedy and unending loss. The magnitude of sickening sadness for this school and community is almost too much to witness at a "safe distance" because all of us who have a loved one can feel the dread of such a loss. I cannot comprehend the level of devastation this community will be facing for a long time.

All I can think is that the survival of those left will need to focus on the beauty that came from the lives of those innocent children and from the adults who were an integral part of their community. Honoring the ones lost today can be served by living a good life for them...somehow turning the evil into helpful knowledge that might make a difference elsewhere.

This Christmas, there will be more angelic voices joining Heaven's choir, but I sure do wish they would have had more time here on Earth to sing with beautiful childish voices and I know the adults taken from their families will have their own voices missed with heartaches. Somehow, it's the voices we long to hear once again.

Yet, in their silence, they are heard.