One Day Can Bend Your Life

I have a new motto. "One day can bend your life."
This is a quote from Mitch Album, one of my favorite, most relatable authors. It couldn't be more true right now. Today, my heart swells with the thought that perfect strangers are reading my writing and supporting me. That's awesome. It all started on 12/1/12, though, with this absolute tragedy.

This day, for sure, bent my life. I'm sure it bent a lot of ours.

I don't know why I was affected so strongly. I didn't know these kids. I had no connections to them. I am not good friends with anybody who plays football or softball... The list goes on and on of the ways that I'm not connected. There's something different though. I AM connected. We all are. We are connected because we are human.

There's something to be said for the human connection. It's this idea that we are all here on this planet and we can hurt or help each and every person that we meet. It's our decision, although a lot of the times, it doesn't seem to be made consciously. It's the idea that, no matter where we come from, what holidays we celebrate, the color of our hair, the character we have, or the things that we are interested in, we are all human. Each and every one of us are connected to each other through this idea.

So this day? It bent my life because I'm a human. Two similar humans were taken. Two similar humans are now in pain with memory. Moms don't have their children. The most shocking part is that it could have been anybody.

Call this a mortality crisis, a kick in my butt, or maybe, just what I needed. I needed to learn how to live again. I needed to see that life really is precious. The saying, "Life is short," now has real meaning. 12/1/12 bent my life because it taught me what life really is.

I'm grateful for the experiences I've had now. (Granted, I wish none of this ever happened. I wish desperately that this pain would cease to exist.) All things are blessings or curses. I like to believe everything is a blessing; you just have to look at it right.

I am connected to this, feel so strongly about this, and will forever be changed by this because I know now I'm not alone. I can relate. I can feel the human energy around me and I recognize that each and every one of us has the power to harness that and turn it around into negative or positive energy. I'm excited to see that I am needed to help people, that I give people hope. I like having a purpose.

Greatest of all, I like that I can help people now. I know I can. I know I have things to share and wisdom to impart and I'm confident in the idea now that there's a story inside of me that needs to get out. I love that my future is bright. I love that I have new friends. I love that I'm a better person than I was now.

I don't love how it had to happen.

I didn't know any of these people, yet some nights I weep over them. I cry for their families, their boyfriend and girlfriend, their friends, everything. Some things bend your life. I can't explain.

My greatest blessing so far. 

We can choose to look at this situation as something that blesses us or curses us. Then, once we choose, we can act accordingly.

I hope you've chosen what I did.