From the 9/23/17 Concert Across America Against Gun Violence..to this time of loss by just that in Las Vegas 10-1-17

As wonderful as the September 23rd, 2017 benefit for global causes big concert was in Central Park, it's especially nice to realize that it went on without major upsets...Now on October 2nd, 2017, our country has heard of a devastating turn of events at a Las Vegas Concert..all be one misguided man in his 60s...

I was thinking in recent times that most people feel lucky to turn another decade older after 40 and 50 without too many health or personal problems. Apparently, for some the 'blessing of growing older' becomes a curse..not only for themselves but for other's in the path of their despair or fury.

I had just read a biography by a mother whose middle aged daughter was a victim of gun violence by a home intruder (who could have left, but sadly did not, and was only 17 so is spending his life in jail for a set of bad decisions along with one of his peers). The reaction to curse (that the events happened, that the perpetrator/s acted as they did whether by choice or seemingly out of their mind/s, that something did not prevent the fall-out and much more) seems automatic and 'absolutely part of the human experience' versus the response to  find a way to question the deeper societal factors or other ramifications of one's existence and our shared journeys is something to take time to reflect on with a variety of viewpoints. These 'trials by fire' may steer more people to explore 'the quantum field' and the idea that everyone is energy that cannot be created or destoyed, only transformed from one form to another. More on that in other posts...

Lois' daugther Susie died in 2010, so I felt a connection to her when  I met at the Carey Gabay Foundation fundraiser against gun violence on Sept.23rd 2017 which was part of a series Across America. Again that good wave of heartfelt concerns, with activism toward securing more background checks and other reasonable precautions, were discussed as part of the benefits.

I pray for the many families facing The Unthinkable (the name of Lois Schaffer's book) in dealing with the sudden difficult loss of their loved ones and the injuries incurred at this and far too many other 'singular episodes of violence and fatality with guns...or other forms of weaponry from words to swords."

On a more hopeful note, I met someone who knew a good friend who passed five years after Kaelan. The 'small world' connections involved his having gone to Yale at the same time as the friend's wife and my sharing of the story jogged his memory. He'd heard of our loss and realized I was Kaelan's Mom...now this is a chance encounter in a large complex in Brooklyn. After reading Closer Than 'You' Think by Deborah Heneghan recently, it felt like one of those hellos from heaven... and a light along the pathway of staying strong when storms and difficulties come along.