On the Las Vegas Shootings

3 min read

When violence, be it direct or indirect, has been committed against your soul, it can send many mixed signals and daggers of fear into your heart. I wanted to write briefly about the tragic shootings in Las Vegas. As a mother, I worry about the future my children will grow up in. I worry what to tell them when something like this happens. As a soldier, I know that not everyone should have a weapon and that we need stricter gun laws. I know that there are veterans who suffer from PTSD, and that can bring horrific consequences if someone is mentally ill. As a writer, there are times while I’m writing novels when I do have to tune out the world so I can concentrate on what I’m doing, but sometimes the world can’t be silenced. Sometimes bad things happen to truly good people, and making sense out of it all is harder than trying to find a paperclip in an overgrown field.

To anyone who has been emotionally scarred by yesterday’s senseless tragedy, here are some things to help:

“In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.” ― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

“Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions.” – Primo Levi, Holocaust Survivor

“Music saved my life, and music saves me still.” – Alice Herz-Sommer, pianist and Holocaust survivor

I don’t know why tragedies occur. I don’t know why violence happens to innocent, good people.

But I do know a few things about resilience.

Going through hard times does make us stronger as individuals and as people. There is hardship and heartache and loss, yes, but it makes us survivors, and if you can keep the love in your heart and the inherent optimism in your soul, you will persevere and overcome anything.

Hold your loved ones a little closer today. Hug that person who hasn’t been hugged in a long time, and tell someone you love them. Hopefully something will be done about the gun laws in this country. Until they are changed, remember to nurture your soul, love others, and surround yourself with positive thoughts.

My love to all of you.

-R.

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