Yet another ....

According to the Washington Times, there were 7 mass shootings in 2012, which is the most in one year so far.  One week before Christmas, when we celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace, we were once again stunned with 26 or 28 deaths, depending on how you count.  And already in 2013, on January 20 a teen
killed his parents and 3 siblings before heading to his father's church intent on killing more as well as himself.  Fortunately, even equipped with assault weapons, he stopped the killing and is now in custody of New Mexico law enforcement.

How do we deal with this?  Why is this happening?  Why do so many of our children have weapons at all?  How does this happen?  What can we do to stop it?  or maybe we should just stick our heads in the sand and pretend it doesn't affect our part of the world?

There are so many issues clouding our sensibilities.  The horror; the trauma that not only affects the local community but the entire nation and world; the cause/s; our fear; our denial; grief; the many losses not only of life but of freedom, safety, trust; the lack of answers or even being sure where to find answers.  We are riddled with overwhelming and conflicting emotions of anger, despair, fear, sadness, compassion, vulnerability, agony, outrage.

We haven't even had the time or received the guidance needed to begin to process Sandy Hook and we're on to the next mass murder. Granted we celebrated Hanukkah, Christmas, New Years and Epiphany in between. But what did they mean?  Did we just do the social thing or did we allow the Prince of Peace or even the Miracle of Lights guide us?  Did we trust enough to hold our horror and anger up in the midst of the Light of Christ to see what we learn even in the shadows?  My guess is some have, but most allowed the social activities and glitter of the season blind us to the deep dark hole spinning out of control.

The first thing we need to do is allow ourselves to feel and to talk about those feelings and how we've experienced these mass shootings with someone who will listen without judgement.  Don't look for solutions or reasons or causes or someone to blame.  Just take the time to talk about how these shootings are affecting you.  Don't take any action other than talking to a trusted, well-balanced person who will not deny or judge what you say but they will hear you.  This isn't dwelling on it, rather this is allowing your system to start doing the work it takes to process those things that affect you.  If you don't process it, this will stay inside you and fester.

I'm horrified, just sickened by what is happening.  I just can't fathom what kind of pain leads someone to do such an unthinkable thing.  Children!  Children dying, children killing ... it terrifies me.  Every time I go to the theater now, I actually think about what if ....  When I'm on a school campus, or I think about my husband or daughter on their school campus' ... what if .  I feel vulnerable and don't want to be.  I want to equip myself but how?

In my next blog, I'll talk about more steps we can take to process and equip ourselves to be safer and healthier.