path of peace.

i sat in my office this morning, completely unaware that not too close, but not too far away, children were running, screaming and dying as a man shot his way through their elementary school.

my heart breaks for the children who will have to deal with this trauma for years to come, for the families who have lost someone today and for the staff of the school. for everyone involved, the world has exposed itself as unstable and unsafe. and we all respond in different ways.

yet my heart also break for the person(s) involved in taking the lives of the adults and children. grace is meant for them, just as it is meant for the innocent child of the world. this is not something one wakes up and decides they "want" to do (though we cannot deny that they chose to). it is something that is produced when something is drastically wrong.

⁷⁶ And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
    for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
⁷⁷ to give his people the knowledge of salvation
    through the forgiveness of their sins,
⁷⁸ because of the tender mercy of our God,
    by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
⁷⁹ to shine on those living in darkness
    and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
-Luke 1:76-79

so it goes.

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate.

In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

shoes.

sometimes, a woman will compliment another woman on her new shoes.
sometimes, a woman will be very excited because the complimenting woman has nice shoes so it's like a compliment x2.
sometimes, that woman (who is me) will do a little fist pump to herself in the washroom mirror before realizing how totally ridiculous this is.

i got new shoes.