Heavy Hearts

Elodie. August 2012.

I would love to give you some fancy excuse for my blogging strike but I don't have one.   Just life.  I should and probably do have many changes to report but I cannot think of any right now. It's hard to talk about the hustle and bustle of daily life in the midst of a national tragedy. 

As a parent, I cannot imagine the grief those mothers and fathers are feeling.  The cascade of senseless shooting rampages that now have plagued our country for years makes me think twice about my child attending a school setting in any form.  During the car ride to the mall in WI a few weekends ago I found myself silently hoping that there would not be a gunman or bomb there.  Ridiculous.

As a mental health counselor for traumatized children, I listen to stories of tragedy, senseless acts of violence committed against  and/or in the presence of our babies, and attempt to heal the parts of the broken little ones who have been disregarded in one capacity or another during their young lives.

As a person, it all just breaks my heart.  Then makes me angry, and breaks my heart again.  I listen to Mr. President speak of change and I read the news reports. I read the facebook posts and watch the news clips online.  But in reality, despite the best of debates, I know this is not just about guns and the NRA.  It is not about metal detectors in schools, violence on television, or glorified news casts.  I don't view a single factor as the problem. 

In my opinion, this is about a multitude of things.  The breakdown of the nuclear and the extended family, the overall acceptance of violence within our culture, the lack of nurturing we provide our children, the mentally ill who fall through the cracks, our failure to value and protect children, isolation through relational poverty, and most importantly, the lack of empathy we are instilling in our babies.  They have to be unconditionally loved in order to love.  Period.  I could create an endless list of everything that we, as a society are doing wrong.  But I am trying not to rant too much here. 

I had read a fabulous quote by Dr. Bruce Perry (google him if you are interested) that I will leave you with:

"“Fire can warm or consume,
water can quench or drown,
wind can caress or cut.

And so it is with human relationships;
we can both create and destroy,
nurture and terrorize,
traumatize and heal each other” 

― Bruce D. Perry