A Silent Moment

At 9:30 this morning I sat in my living room joining my heart with many others in a moment of silence, of remembrance for lives cut tragically short.  Snow fell.  The power went out.  It almost seemed fitting.
Last Friday morning I was driving with my children in the car when a report came across the 11am radio news that there was a shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.  Fear gripped me as I pulled to the side of the road and started calling family members: my brother, my mom.  My niece is a first grader in Newtown.  Within a few short minutes we established she was safe at a different school.
This week has been one of mourning for so many.  I pray today that grief will be replaced by peace and anguish with joy and despair with hope, one breath at a time.