Wow, I'm sitting here in the Spotted Cow, just beside my self right now. There's a gal that works here that I've made friends with and we were just chatting catching up on our lives and she shared with me about a local 14 year-old boy jumping off the I-5 bridge to his death.
The young man went to her eldest son's school and it has been pretty shocking and close to home for her. I found the article on the local news page and read through it, not much info. But I am just struck by this.
What would cause a young boy (yeah, he's 14, but he's someone's boy and I can't help but think of my Aidan, he was someone's Aidan). Or was he? My friend said he was a foster child and was troubled. This just breaks my heart!
Being a mom now, I feel like my heart is more out there than its ever been. I'm more in touch with emotion of all sorts. What would cause someone to take their life? To take it like this? To take it so young? Ah, just writing this makes me want to cry.
Children are absolutely amazing to me; they're smart, witty, innocent, precious, loving, unprejudiced, simple - they just want love and affection, time, attention. They are so impressionable for the good and the bad. What did this young man see? What did he grow up feeling? Hearing? I can only imagine.
The horrors that some children face just rips at my heart. And again, I can't help but see my Aidan or my Eden and think about them and how they would be devastated by such things - drugs, violence, abuse of all sorts, no one wanting them, no one at home when they get home because they are too busy out "living the dream" or working hard for "the dream", or maybe they don't even having a home...
I can't help but think of the words in a song, "all we need is love". Truly, its so simple, all we need, all children, adults, the elderly, need is Love - to know the Father's love for them. To know they are Loved and to know they are wanted and they are special and significant.
Jesus said, "let the little children come unto me". Does my life say, "you are welcome here?" Does my life speak love and significance to others? There's a quote by Mother Teresa that I love. It says, “Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.”
This all just makes me want to hug and love on all the children I see. Of course I can't necessarily do that but my eyes and my spirit can. My words sure can. And if I can, I will...
