Another December 14th.

The 8th since my brother called to tell me something had happened at my nephew’s school, since he texted me an hour later, saying that he had my nephew. Something that 20 families didn’t get to hear.

I am well acquainted with grief.

Collective and individual.

With days that are remembered in our collective national conscience because they are so painful that those of us it impacted, those of us immediately adjacent to it, those of us further away from it.

The grief feels somehow more acute this year, as we are in the midst of another period of collective national grief…ongoing over the last 9 months…that grief rolling in waves and touching so many. The grief from Sandy Hook, so acute, so sudden and so painful with each reminder.

Be gentle, my friends.

We don’t know one another’s loads.

Remember our fragile humanity, friends.

Make space. Hold space.

And when you are able, act in a way that honors your true humanity and that of others.

It is all so much and it is the best we can do in this moment.