Saturday, January 15, 2011

Just Prayers

I wish I had something profound to say in regards to the mass shooting here in Tucson last Saturday, as I do want to recognize it. The Safeway is 4 miles up the street from our house - I drive by there on my way to the grocery store, and eat lunch at the Beyond Bread that opened in that plaza a couple of months ago. My sister-in-law sometimes grocery shops there with my nieces, since she lives one minute away, and actually heard the gunshots from her house that morning. J and I had planned our anniversary dinner that night at one of our favorite special-occasion-only restaurants Wildflower, right across the street. So the shooting definitely hit very close to home.

Some of the first patients were actually transferred to my hospital before they started sending people to UMC. When I got the call from work that we were in External Disaster mode and they needed to know if I could come in if needed, I asked "Is this a drill?" No, it most certainly was not a drill.

Since then, J and I have been processing. Processing how we can engage with our city during this time of tragedy. Processing the recognition and support Tucson has received from our nation and our President. Processing the lives lost and damaged, and the fear and sadness the shooting has provoked. Processing when and how to point to hope. And processing how thankful we were that we took BB to the U of A campus, far from Ina and Oracle, for a storybook and character reading that morning.

I don't have any wise words to share. Prayers though, I have those.

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