Divine direction helps community heal after tragedy

Healing. What does that mean? A healing wound forms a scab for protection against more damage.

Wounds take time to heal. But time alone does not heal a wound – and some wounds never completely heal.

I am asked often: “How are you? How is your family?”

I’m often tempted to respond: “Life sucks, but thank you for asking.”

How are we? We are learning to live our lives without two beloved family members who have no business being dead. Sadly, I know my grief is understood by so many people who have lost loved ones, specifically children.

I get angry at our circumstances and deliberate on the “why” factor in this equation. Let’s ponder that for a moment.

Why did a man kill three innocent people? He was not and is not mentally ill. He had free will.

So why? He is evil.

We faced the reality of murders, cremated two family members, sat silently through an insidious murder trial, where an evil man declared he had every intention of killing more people that day. Yet we continued to put one foot in front of the other. We have missed birthdays, holidays and many life events and are only in our second year of this new and disliked reality.

Since that day, we created two foundations, a communitywide event, encouraged volunteers to show acts of kindness and have been heralded as heroes to those who pray to never face such a tragedy. Thank you for the vote of encouragement, and I don’t blame you for hoping you never face what we have lived.

A friend recently told me that I am now defined as, “the woman who lost her father and son in the Jewish Community Center shooting.” I did not take offense; I listened. It may be how I am known but not how I am defined.

I am a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother, an aunt, a friend, a business owner, a faithful servant of God. Sometimes I am nice and sometimes I can be intolerable.

I don’t apologize. It is just who I can be at times.

To others I am the woman who lost her father and son in the shooting. In my current reality, this definition and how I respond to it is my mission. I am more than that woman but I am that woman.

The challenges we face because of evil exploding in our city, our nation and our world push me on most days to push others. God spoke to me on April 13, 2014, and He keeps tugging at my heart.

His message to me … His challenge for me … His healing process for me is to bring different faiths together so they can learn not to fear one another. When the scab on my heart tears off and the pain and damage are present, I find it helps to begin healing again through following the mission I have been given: to make a ripple and help change the world.

Join me and others in our community as we find healing through acts of kindness and religious understanding with SevenDays: Make a Ripple, Change the World beginning Tuesday, www.givesevendays.org.

This story was originally published April 10, 2016 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Divine direction helps community heal after tragedy."