Fear, Faith and Hope

I will be 28 in August.

In those 28 years, I have seen the World Trade Center bombed once, and then leveled on 9/11.

I have seen the Oklahoma City Bombing.

I've seen anthrax attacks, mail bombings,

I've seen Columbine, and Virginia Tech, and Newtown, Aurora, Lancaster Chardon,.......

In the past two years alone, I have had to explain 2 school shootings to my daughter. Then this morning a bombing.

As she sat in the back of the car on the way to school this morning, I asked her if she knew what happened yesterday. I'd kept her away from the news last night, and I'd rather her hear these things from me. She told me she didn't know so I explained it to her in the simplest way I could.

'Mommy, I should pray for those people huh?'

'Yes, I have to drive, but you can pray.'

Now as we've discussed, I'm not overly religious. I believe, but I'm not like....my mom for instance. She has a prayer and a verse for everything and I respect that. Somehow, I am raising a very spiritual six year old. I'd like to paraphrase her prayer for you guys because it did touch me this morning.

'God, please bless the injury people from the race. Help them to heal quick. Help the doctors to know how to fix them. The people that died should go to heaven, cuz they were just running. They didn't do anything wrong. The person that did this isn't a bad person God, they just made a bad choice. Maybe tomorrow they will make a good one. I don't want to tell you what to do God, but be with all the people that are hurt, and sad. Amen.'

When things like this happen our immediate reaction is fear. Which is natural. It's scary to think that even at school, or at a movie, or the mall, or running a marathon we aren't entirely safe. This is, however, exactly why terror and terrorism works. Because of the natural human reaction to trauma and traumatic events which is fear. Our next move is to faith. Pray for Boston. Our prayers and thoughts are with you. Even the supposedly 'faithless' have faith. Its an act of faith when you set your alarm clock each night. You have faith you will wake up again to turn it off.

Boomer's prayer gives me faith and hope. The innocence of her childhood tells her that people aren't bad, they just make bad choices. She has however been touched by death and knows that that is sad and awful. Her immediate response to want to pray for ALL the people involved gives me faith and hope. Just like seeing pictures of people running not away from the danger, but towards it to help gives me faith and hope. The hundreds of people who offered their homes and food to anyone that needed it yesterday, that gives me faith and hope

I hate that I have to explain these things to Boomer. I hate that these things happen. I hate that human nature is inherently evil, and selfish. I love however that everyday we transcend that nature and do good. I am scared, and sad, but I have faith and hope. My thoughts and prayers are with all who were affected by yesterday's tragedy.