Mourning

"Grief fills the room up of my absent child,Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me . . ."- Shakespeare, King John

Please pray for my colleague, who lost his baby girl and whose wife and 5 year old son remain in critical condition after this horrific tragedy.

Pray to whomever you believe can help lift this sadness from this man, who was so kind and so unknown and so far from home, to make a living that was worthy of his family and now has lost so much.

Pray that there is some reason that this accident occured and why it makes me shiver with worry that if it could happen to him, why couldn't it happen to us all?

"Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts."- Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Pray for us to come together as a community of educators to feel the loss of this tragedy and not slough it off as yet another headline. To embrace the loss not because it makes us feel worse but because it makes us feel. We are interconnected, even in our isolated pods of classrooms, in our own professional worries and difficult work-filled days.

Pray that we remember to hug our children, to kiss our spouses, to thank our friends.

Pray that we remember the value of the life we have now; not the one that we are working for someday or the things we want our children to be when they grow up.

Pray that the oft-embittered sorrows of the world will someday yield peace for all.

"Joy and grief were mingled in the cup; but there were no bitter tears: for even grief itself arose so softened, and clothed in such sweet and tender recollections, that it became a solemn pleasure, and lost all character of pain."- Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist