September Sky

The air is crispy today the sky is a much darker blue. The sun has shifted and is moving on to give other's their Spring and Summer. The boys' new clothes are folded neatly in their drawers and their new backpacks stuffed with supplies are waiting patiently by the door.

A new school year offers such promise. Another year of growth and knowledge bringing them (and me) a bit further down the path. Anything is possible at this moment, and my hope is that this will be the best year.

I'm very blessed this moment. My boys are with me, bickering of course, but with me. I do not take that for granted.

I'm going to school today to do some work, and then I will attend a wake for a student. A young man entering his last year of middle school was tragically taken from our world, and making sense of such a thing is quite impossible at this moment, or any for that matter.

I think of his mother....

Folding his new clothes and putting them in his drawers, making sure he had enough shorts and shirts, and jeans to start the new year. Checking over the list of supplies the school issues to see if there was anything missed.

I think of her walking into the kitchen seeing the cupcakes she made for him on his birthday, which turned out to be his death day as well. I think of her feeling this crispy air full of hope and promise and it feeling like razors on her skin.

I think of her, and I pray to God I will never have to know how she feels.