Reflecting

I am outside. I’d forgotten what the sun looked like. It is a beautiful sunset in Huntsville, Alabama. It’s so warm you’d think it was spring. Oh, yeah. It is.

It has been a long and stressful week, and would have been so even if the shootings at Tech on Monday and the shooting at Johnson Space Center on Friday had not bracketed it. My mind races with ideas on what to write. I had intended to write about my trip (now extended another week) when I got back, but such things seem wrong for the moment. I want to write about appreciating friends and family, recognizing the reality of security and emergency response, media coverage of unfolding and tragic events, reflections on fond memories of Tech to wipe the blood and tears from my mind. But the thoughts all come at once and then my brain shuts down to protect itself. Maybe when I finally get home I will have something coherent. For now, I am simply thankfully that no one I know was injured or killed. It’s sad that it sometimes takes a tragedy to make us reach out to those around us. But as long as we do reach out, there is hope.

The sun is gone. The warmth is fading. It’s still beautiful, though. Even in the dark.