Pausing

It seems that everything flies past, so busy, busy, busy... Making soap, working on the torch, doing shows, filling orders, chatting on the phone or on the internet.

But, yesterday things slowed down. Bob and I were just getting ready to leave the house on some errands and the news of the shootings at Virginia Tech came on the TV. We watched in shock, but then left to finish up our chores. The radio was on in the car, tuned to the news and we heard as the death count mounted to unbelievable numbers.

Along with the news, the violent wind and rain of the day took its toll as we came home to a house with no electricity. I had already begun stringing up this fairy necklace and so, in the relative quiet (even though we still had the portable radio tuned to the news) I worked this. I'm so glad I had something to occupy my mind and hands although I must admit it was hard to keep working steadily on it until the electricity came back on. I was restless and hungry to know how on earth this had happened.

Having a son away at college gave me an extra jolt at this news and I felt the need to connect with him - he had not yet heard anything about the events at VA Tech and was uncharacteristically shocked. He was in high school when Columbine happened and so, I relived that day as well. I am so grateful he has never been exposed to this kind of tragedy and yet I feel the possibility exists everywhere.

The news media, having run out of facts, decided to start pointing fingers. So sad. The perpetrator was dead. Enough have paid for this crime. The only thing we can think of that the college administration can do now is to construct a better alarm system. They did the best they could with the information available at the time.

It just seemed that the day went in slow motion.... Let us hope this is the last of this sort of thing.