Did You Remember? Will We Remember?

Did you remember to tell your husband you love him when he left for that errand at the mall? Or did you get frustrated because he was supposed to pick up whatever it was last week.

Did you remember to hug and kiss your kids and to tell them they are your whole world before dropping them off at school? Or did you run around the house frantic because the clock was ticking and teeth hadn’t been brushed. 

When your daughter begged to stay home from school, “Pllleeeeaaassse? Just this once?” Did you force her to get up and out the door promising her things would be better as the day went on?

This is daily life in the Zomerman house. What would happen if life as I know it changed in a heartbeat? What would I give to have everything back to normal again?

I’m so sorry Oregon Wife. I’m heartbroken Connecticut Mom. I don’t know you, but I want to ease your pain so badly. Mostly because I know I would not be able to handle the hurt myself.

I saw my therapist this morning. (Yes, I see a therapist. There. It’s out.) She warned me about watching the news all day. She told me I have an empathetic heart, but consuming myself with CNN doesn’t help anyone.

How can I not be tuned in for the latest headline? It’s not FAIR or RIGHT or JUST that these innocent people have been trampled with devastation. How can I go on with laundry and holiday gift shopping while others suffer?

Before you tell me that people around the world suffer every day, I get that. I do. For some reason it’s easier to distance myself and try to help from afar in those situations. But a shooting in a mall near my town and a massacre in an ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, FOR GOD’S SAKE, is too close to my own daily routine. It could be me.

Obviously, I have no answers. Only a deep compassion for those family members left without their loved ones. 

Will I remember to hold my family tight each and every time they walk out the door of our home into this big, beautiful, scary, wonderful, horrible world? 

God, remind me. Hear my prayer.