Three weeks in a row. Three wake-up calls. I have been trying to come up with a topic to blog about since last night. Sure, there are a lot of sportsy things I could write about but I find it to be difficult in light of what happened on Friday in Newtown, CT. I just can not seem to get my thoughts together. As the daughter of an elementary school principal, my heart literally felt like it shattered on Friday. All I keep saying is those babies, those babies. I attempted to find a way to talk about how football served as a much needed break this weekend in the face of such tragedy. How it provided us an opportunity to focus on something else besides the grief and pain we have experienced. I was reminded just how temporary the relief was when the Sunday Night Football game between my 9ers and the Patriots was interrupted by The President, who was speaking at an interfaith service in Newtown. Sure, we can all find other things to do that will take our mind off the situation but that does not make the situation go away. This situation is one we all have to deal with and I pray that it challenges us to want to do more. Life is so precious and it can end without warning. We should all be committed to making the most of our time here. I have had people ask me before, “what would you want people to say about you at your funeral?” My response is always the same, “that I served God wholeheartedly and loved Him, my family and friends and I loved helping people.”  Sure you can talk about how much I loved sports but if my love for sports does not help someone else in any way, shape or form then I do not believe I have done what I was put here to do. It is going to take more than gun buy-back programs to help prevent other tragedies. It is going to take prayer,  love, dialogue, spending quality time with others, effective communication, honesty, compassion, care, grace, mercy, passion, determination, the list goes on and on to help shape this world into a place we want our children to grow up in. I ask that at some point today, you sit down and reflect on where you are in your life right now. Then ask yourself, “what am I doing to help shape this world into a place I want our children to grow up in?” If your answer is nothing, then challenge yourself this week to come up with a plan of action. If you have an answer for how you are helping, then ask yourself if there is more you could be doing? If the answer is yes, come up with a plan to action to do just that. If we all meet the challenge then we have a greater chance at preventing what happened in Newtown from happening over and over and over again. May God bless you all.

This blog is dedicated to the memory of….those babies and the brave women who gave their life so others could live…

Charlotte Bacon, 6…Olivia Engel, 6…Dylan Hockley, 6…Jesse Lewis, 6…Ana Marquez-Greene, 6…Grace McDonnell, 7…Emilie Parker, 6…Noah Pozner, 6…Jessica Rekos, 6…Daniel Barden, 7…Josephine Gray, 7…Madeleine Hsu, 6…Catherine Hubbard, 6…Chase Kowalski, 7…James Mattioli, 6…Jack Pinto, 6…Carolina Prividi, 6…Avielle Richman, 6…Benjamin Wheeler, 6…Allison Watt, 6…Principal Dawn Hochsprung, 47…Teacher Anne Murphy, 52…Teach Lauren Rousseau, 30…Psychologist Mary Sherlach, 56…Teacher Victoria Soto, 27…Behavioral Therapist Rachel D’Avino, 29…may they all rest in Heavenly peace…