My heart aches so bad I can barely breathe. My cousin, basically my brother, died in the line of duty as a Dallas firefighter tonight. Bart Millard/Mercy Me.
Two completely different situations, yet related by the nature of being unexpected. Even the act of seeing this photo when I was checking on the news, took me back. The police had taken the Norway shooter back to the island to have him recreate, step by step, each shot he took that would leave 69 people dead.
Unexpected can be a good thing, not as often and when it is good, we have to do a quick emotional u-turn. The couple that won over 200 million dollars in the lottery last week, had just sought financial counseling and the results were not good. In a second, their whole life changed forever.
We have all experienced the unexpected, in some way. Some in little ways and some in mighty big ways. Most of the time, I imagine you would be hard pressed to remember the first few Moments. Like Bart, he said it for all of us. A later Tweet would sound less emotional, the acceptance phase had began.
The knock at the door, the path report from the Doctor, the late night phone call. None of which you can practice for. Think the only thing that is fluid is how long you stay in those first few Moments. Some people stay there forever, never learning to live with the new normal. I hope we are stronger than we think. For me, I am counting on it...
