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a week of losses

On the same day my Facebook feed is full of pictures from the funerals of the two seniors who died at UNC-CH, I'm also getting news feeds from people outside NC about a shooting in Colorado. Has our nation gone mad?  My heart just hurts - for our children who live in fear and have shooting drills, for my niece who came home from school extremely upset because they had a "false alarm" lockdown at school and a classmate was trapped in the hallway and the teacher wouldn't open the door, despite his tears and begging. I know procedure says not to do that, and the student is to leave the building or hide in the bathroom, but who wants to be exposed in an open hallway when there's a shooter on the loose?  I hurt for the parents, especially the parents whose children were hurt or killed, and yes, even for the parents who are living with the nightmare that their child committed the atrocities. How in the span of 30 years did we go from students having their hunting rifles in their pickups while on school property and no school shootings to guns being banned and shootings becoming so commonplace that every school has planned and unplanned shooting drills?


And totally trivial and meaningless compared to the other events of the week, the six small buds that we thought were going to be kiwi have simple disappeared off the plant. I don't know if last weekend's rains and wind blew them off, or if a bird ate them, or what. We just know they are no longer there.

And we are missing a goldfish. I have no clue how a goldfish in a covered tank simply disappears, but it is not there. I cleaned the tank today, and could not find our orange goldfish anywhere.

And we've lost a goose. We were hoping she was on a nest somewhere, but I think we've both realized either a fox or coyote got her.

Praying next week brings some peace and solace to our nation, as well as some very deep self-examination.

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