A day for Remembering

May 21st will always be a day that causes me to pause and reflect. Ten years ago today was the Thurston shooting. As a freshman in high school in the same city it was an unusual experience. So many small and unexpected connections to the situation made it all the more frightening. Even now as I sit and think about all the people I knew and all the things that we experienced surrounding that shooting it is unreal to grasp how close to home that tragic event really was and what an amazingly small and interweaved community I was a part of. I think about sitting at the fence in front of the high school and praying with friends and family and I realize that for so many families the shock and pain of that spring morning may be just as fresh and renewed on this morning as it was ten years ago and I grieve for them.

Five years ago on this same day Chase died. Committed suicide and left so many people in despair and utter sadness. He was the closest person I had ever lost in my life. I had never experienced a sadness that truly makes your heart ache with real pain. He was truly one of the greatest friends I have ever known and I miss him so much.

So today I remember. I remember all of the people who are gone from this world. I remember all of the family and friends who loved them. I remember all the pain that has been felt by so many on this day for the last ten years and I look to the future with hope that May 21st will be a day to remember and reflect with love and forgiveness and not a day to look back with sad and bitter regrets.

Please stop whatever you are busy doing right now and remember. Remember the loved ones you have lost, remember their families and thier friends. Think of them with joy, love and the laughter of good times. Remember to forgive. Forgive those who may have caused you these losses and reach out to them with love as well.

And always remember.........