I'll Be There For You

On this week before Christmas, I feel like my blog should be full of merriment, present and decorating ideas, and pictures of my holiday plans.  However, after the tragic massacre at Sandy Hook elementary school, I didn't feel like that was a meaningful enough use of my little piece of the Internet.

Still, I don't really know what to say.  To the families of the victims of this tragedy, I send my heartfelt wishes and prayers for the strength to get through this.  To the politicians across the country to actually do something about gun control and mental health care, I hope that you have the presence of mind to consider every side of the issue.  To the family of the gunman, Adam Lanza, I pray that you have the strength to not only take responsibility for his actions, but to weather the scorn and anger that it sure to come from many different corners.  And for all those grieving the loss of these beautiful, innocent children, just remember that you are not alone.

In the true spirit of the holiday season, we are all there for each other.

Thank God for the Little Things

Hello again. Sorry that I haven't posted in a while, but to be completely honest I've been a little down this lately. To be more precise, I still find the weekends hard. That's when I miss home and the only time I ever let myself cry.

But this weekend, I got reminded by the little things that life isn't really so bad.

I couldn't focus on my homework yesterday, being both sad and in a highly distracting environment, and so I went for a walk. A short bus ride and four blocks later, I settled down at Mountain Lake Park by my grandparents. I sat in the sun, watching parents teach their little kids how to throw baseballs or kick a soccer ball. There was one family having a birthday party, complete with a bounce house! At first I thought it might make me sad, sitting there by myself with all these families, but then a funny thing happened.

I got recruited to play by this cute little thing.

The man sitting next to me had brought along his dog and baby. He was trying to get the baby to go to sleep and the dog kept whining and nudging his ball; he wanted to play. Unfortunately for the man, he already had his hands full. Eventually, the dog got the hint, and went to chew on the ball right behind where I was sitting. He was so adorably bouncy that when the ball rolled to a stop next to me, I couldn't resist throwing it for him.

And that turned into a whole two and a half hours of playing with this random dog in the park, while reading Plato.

That may sound like it was distracting. Didn't I go there to work, after all? But to be completely honest, playing with that dog was exactly what I needed. I didn't want to just go out on the weekends to distract myself, and frankly I wasn't in a very playful mood. But this little afternoon delight reminded me that sometimes, you just need a break. When you get to far inside your head, and you feel like you'll never get out, that's when you need to go for a walk, get outside, go smell the flowers.

Although I will still miss home and will still get sad sometimes, I know that it's okay. But it's not okay to sit and wallow in my tears. It's best to get out, and play a game of ball.