The love.

Lately I’ve been thinking about who I want to love, and how I want to love, and why I want to love the way I want to love, and what I need to learn to love that way, and who I need to become, to become the kind of love I want to be…….and when I break it all down, when I whittle it into a single breath, it essentially comes out like this: Before I die, I want to be somebody’s favorite hiding place, the place they can put everything they know they need to survive, every secret, every solitude, every nervous prayer, and be absolutely certain I will keep it safe. I will keep it safe.

Narrative

“You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should’ve behaved better.”

 —Anne Lamott 

Underneath

“People think dreams aren’t real just because they aren’t made of matter, of particles. Dreams are real. But they are made of viewpoints, of images, of memories and puns and lost hopes.”

Huh.

Demand A Plan

I refuse to write about Sandy Hook.  I refuse to write about the blame, the sorrow, the need for compassion, the argument around the placement of religion.  I refuse to make this tragedy about me in the sense that I wax poetic in a way that soothes only my narcissistic wounds.  Because that's what all the posts I have read on personal blogs have been.  Writing from this perspective does not feel authentic or purposeful.  Then again, I can't instruct others how to conduct their personal blogs.

But here's what I'm doing on mine:

Head over to Demandaplan.org and start making your voice heard.  Be the advocate and change agent to those who are suffering firsthand from their loss and may not have the strength to do it themselves at this point in time.

Sign the petition.

Then, draft your letter to President Obama and Congress and tell them why you want more sensible and appropriate gun laws.  They take care of all the rest.  All you have to do is wax poetic.....only hopefully with some sense of outcome at the end of it.

Here is my letter:

Dear Sen. Robert Casey, Sen. Patrick Toomey, Rep. Robert Brady, and President Barack Obama:

I support Common Sense Legislation to End Gun Violence because we all deserve to feel as safe as we possibly can in this country. As a clinical social worker in the particularly violent city of Philadelphia, I interact daily with individuals who have been affected by gun violence. Everyday, I work to help people heal from posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, paranoia and overall fear. I have committed my life to working with those individuals in our communities who are downtrodden, under-educated, underprivileged and simply surviving. I am doing my part to ensure that these individuals learn the skills to ensure their right to live, rather than to survive. Help me by doing your part to decrease access to weapons. To create another barrier for those that are too entrenched in a culture of desperation and hopelessness as I work to do my job.