Thursday was a beautiful day for many reasons. I think, as always, I realized the importance of having healing conversations with those I tutor and my flute students. We talked, we laughed, we discussed worries and transformations. And in the evening until 8:14 I was feeling pretty good until I noticed the driver of the van who takes our students back to the church talking pretty frantically underneath a blanket of helicopters flying across the sky outside. 

When it was time to clean up, the students were all ordered to stay inside and the words "shooting" and "close by" were all too close to home. And I looked at a mom who had to be about my age with four children and a small baby, terrified to leave where we were to walk back to her car until we heard further news. 

The lines on her face very clearly stated without her having to state that this was news she had been through before, that she had known how this felt all to well. And as we said a prayer before we left, I couldn't help but fully realize just how dark reality is for many. And how we constantly are trying to tackle all the problems of the world when in reality, safety is probably one of the more pressing concerns. 

Though I don't have children of my own yet, tonight really hit home hard for me. It hit home hard when the students heard the news report and even harder when many of my students said, "just another day.."

But I guess it's always good to know that even with a trembling heart and trembling hands, you can still manage to whisper a prayer across the highway as you pass by the police force at the scene of the crime-hoping that violence will end-that someday-it won't be the answer to the problems that someone has- but cannot get rid of.