Our Nation Mourns.

Lighting a candle for peace.

“I’ve seen them grow up,” he said. “We sang stories together, we read books together.… I saw them everywhere. And knowing that I can’t see them anymore, that we won’t see them anymore, that their family has to live with this incredible loss … is almost unbearable.”

I am mourning the loss of our country’s children this morning.

I am sad, I am angry. I am a lot of things, but mostly I am grieving the loss of innocence that has occurred here in my country, in my own home province.

The sad reality has set in, we can not always protect our children from the wolf at the back door. Evil lurks in our communities, division is strong and hate is creeping in through every crack on the sidewalks of our society.

I have my own school-age children but the kids that were so sensisly taken from the world yesterday in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., Canada were my kids too, they were all of our kids.

This isnt supposed ot happen here. In Canada we have strict gun laws that are designed to stop this very kind of thing from happening. We are used to seeing this from the United States, but not here. Is this a sign of the times?

Will this be the wake-up call we need to repair our relationships with each other here, or will it drive us further apart?

All I can think is that these kids didn’t return home to their parents last night, didn’t text their buddies for video games after school and wont make soccer practice.

I think of the police officers who had to rush into a school with an active shooter that likely contained their own children, and how horrendous and heinous that would have felt. Those words don’t even really do it justice.

When my babies were in pre-school at the Montesorri school, every Christmas concert they sang this beautiful song that still sticks with me today.

Light a candle for peace

Light a candle for love

Light a candle that shines

All away around the world

Light a candle for me

Light a candle for you

That our wish for world peace

Will one day come true

Sing peace around the world

At the time, it seemed a little silly to us as young parents, but looking back on it, I can still hear those little voices singing out, protected for a time from what’s to come in life and it makes so much sense. I’m grateful for those teachers and the message.

I still believe in goodness, I know it is inherent, I know that joy exists in these troubled times.

But today I need to feel this sadness as I remember these kids from Tumbler Ridge and throughout the world who are taken from us every day in senseless acts of violence.

Do what you can, work hard for peace, protect our children.

xo

Leeroy