Gathering my thoughts

This is probably not an advisable thing to do as mainly my thoughts should be left right where they are for now. There is much to consider these days in many aspects of my existence, and I tend to dwell on them, as it were. I will do my best work around them!

Here is my mom, Kathy, with three of her great-grandsons: Bryson, Sawyer, and Hunter. Sawyer was baptized on Saturday in a private service which was simply perfect, according to Mom.

How sad it is to once again have a school shooting, this time in Ohio. I hope and pray that not too many die as a result of this rampage. 


I was talking with someone recently about how people are lacking the ability to 'deal' with things. Has life been too easy? Folks seem to have only one emotion or one reaction to fall back on, that being rage.


When I was in training classes for Hospice, the instructor mentioned that people in America are so insolated from death and dying, as a rule, and therefore lack the skills needed to deal with it when faced. Huh....

We have extended our life spans by many years and have a lower infant mortality rate, limiting the exposure society has, as a whole, to losing people. Those 'skills', then, need to be developed and fine-tuned. In Hospice, the trained staff has to deal with people wishing to extend their loved one's life, whether they are conscious or not, in order to basically postpone having to mourn. We, again in general terms, have an aversion to showing our vulnerable underbelly of grieving. While I did undergo the training at the Hospice Center, the bulk of my grief training came via first-hand experience. 

Where was I going with this? Oh yes, how people lack the ability to deal with a situation which is out of their control by taking control, in some cases, with a weapon. In the neighboring county just over the Duval border, a mother of two little boys killed herself after taking the lives of her sons, ages 7 and 6. Oh God! Yes, I meant that, it is apropos to this situation. "Please, Lord, I hope those two boys are with you in bliss and that you have judged that mother as you saw fit." The police are still sorting out the details but it seems that there might have been the risk of a custody issue coming up. Her solution was NOT the right one!