We see horrific things on the news every day. There are shootings at malls and theaters, terrorist attacks,and even natural disasters.
We hear about them, we watch the news for a couple of days, maybe we even write a check for a disaster relief fund, or charity.
They affect us in the moment. We can relate to them, indirectly of course because we aren’t specifically involved with them, then life gets in our way, we get busy and back to the day-to-day things which affect us directly.
But people who are directly affected can’t do that. Their normal changes and sometimes very dramatically. Just as “pink is the new black” they have to learn to find a new normal.
How do you find a new normal, when your child, spouse, parent, sibling, or loved one is taken from you in a senseless act of violence?
Newtown is a small town (population around 2,000) nestled in the rolling hills of southwest Connecticut. In terms of wealth, it’s fairly affluent (for today’s economy) with family income ranging over $100,000. Having visited it myself once, I can say it’s a pretty nice little town.
Newtown is about an hour and twenty minutes away from where I live, yet I feel like it happened in my backyard.
This shooting affected me because first and foremost I am a mother, and a grandmother. My grandson will be five in February and next September he will be going to school.
Quite frankly, I’m terrified by this.
I’m terrified to think that someone can walk in and steal the lives and innocence from our children in a matter of seconds.
I’m terrified to think of the new safety measures which will more than likely be put into place to keep him safe. Will he have to walk through a metal detector to get to school? Will there be armed guards at the doors? How will these measures numb him and other children to the violence that will continue in this world?
It’s not very often that my children see or hear me cry. If you asked them, I think they would tell you that I’m a strong woman. They are 33, 33 and 26 and they can probably count on one hand the times they’ve seen me cry.
My grandchildren go to daycare about a mile down the street from where I work. Yesterday at 4:00 pm my daughter had a phone call, with my voice breaking I asked her to bring my grandchildren by on their way home so I could give them a little hug.
We had movie tickets to go see The Hobbit last night, I tucked my pepper blaster into my purse and every few minutes pulled my eyes away from the movie to skim the crowd for signs of trouble.
Is this my new normal? Has your normal changed?
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