Time to validate

I avoided the news about the Arizona massacre, just did not want to go there, let the news in.  After 9/11 (like the rest of America) and later with my sons serving and losing "brothers" in Iraq and later, at home, I became shell-shocked and found the best coping mechanism was to avoid, deny, and refuse to go to that dark, mournful place. 

But ... I touched my toe into the water today, listening to Obama's speech replayed on YouTube since I conveniently missed it last night.  (There's a very stark contrast between the woman I am today and who I was just two years ago)...  I did not watch the funeral for young Christina, and avoided the news stories for the most part too. 

But now, after listening to his speech last night ... well, lets just say the floodgates are open, let the mourning begin.  I don't have words now, only tears.  For the little innocent Christina Green who never got to experience that first kiss, have a teenage fight with her mom and dad, walk down the aisle, suffer through childbirth, feel the tickle of her own child's breath on her neck. 

I told my youngest son after a brother-in-arms' suicide some time ago:  "You need to live a life that validates him."  Well, this incident, Obama's words, that little girl's death makes me want to validate her life, all their lives, too.