Fear: Choose Love Not Hate

It's times like this that I find myself stricken with fear.  A family woke up yesterday morning, many families - and spent the afternoon at the Boston marathon... Some of them aren't coming home tonight... Kids woke up and went to school on the day of the sandy hook shooting. A day no different than today when I dropped off my son to do the same. Some of those kids didn't go home that night. This fear - this utter fear that even leaving the house isn't safe anymore... When you freeze up inside just doing normal things people do every day. Going to school, taking the bus, an airplane, or like today, going for a run. Safe things, family friendly events that have turned into nightmares. Today people saw things that I have only imagined in my most horrific dreams. And even that was likely not a comparison for the real events that took place. How can I raise my kids in a world full of such hate and chaos? That fear can't beat me. I can't let it win. Instead it festers inside of me and drives me to be a better parent... A better wife... A better person. It reminds me to ALWAYS kiss my kids before I drop them off for school, before bed, and 100 times in between... To always tell them I love them... Because I never know when it could be my last. It drives me to raise great, confident and independent children that know the difference between right and wrong... Love and hate... I can't control the actions of someone else... But, I can control the way I handle it and I can teach my kids to do the same. Today someone thought it was a good idea to blow up men, women and children. Innocents just watching a race. Maybe a child watching his dad cross the finish line. There is no excuse. It's unacceptable... There is no reason valid enough for this to have happened today. But I won't let it beat me. I won't live in fear... We all deserve better than that... And it starts with our kids. Now a days it seems if you're being bullied, don't agree with someone about their race, religion, sexual orientation, or just need some extra attention the solution is easy... Bring a gun to school... Blow up some random strangers... Fly a plane into a building... You will get all the attention you want and more - spread like wild fire across the media. Or maybe - we could just spend a little more time paying attention in the beginning... Teach our children the difference between right and wrong... Love and hate... And one by one we can make this world a better place.