My last post was December 14th the day of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School and I’ve had trouble coming back to blogging ever since.   I have a handful of draft posts started most of them Holiday related and just couldn’t find myself able to finish them or post them because it just seemed so inconsequential and silly to be writing about those things when everything just wasn’t okay.

I was debating about having my first post of 2013 begin with this, but I thought it was important to honor the lives that were lost that day and also, sharing my sense of sadness that many of us feel for the families who were affected that day seemed important to do so in some constructive way.  With a new year upon us I was compelled to do something.

This week the students from Sandy Hook Elementary returned to school.  It shows that life must go on and I admire the students, families and faculty of the Sandy Hook Elementary and Newtown community.   I learned that the Newtown community were looking for ways to make this transition a little easier.  One of the ideas that came to life were to have people send snowflakes to the school to make the school a Winter Wonderland….anything and everything to make this transition easier.   I later learned that they received an abundance of snowflakes to blanket the Newtown community and have closed out the snowflake project.    However,  I decided to spend the afternoon making snowflakes with my five year old son….26 snowflakes in remembrance of each life lost.  My son just thought it was a great winter project and loved opening each snowflake revealing the design I had just cut out.   He had no clue the meaning each snowflake had for me…. it was a positive way for me to think of each person who lost their life as an unique, beautiful individual.  We decided to hang some in our home and others we’re just sharing with friends.

In addition, I’ve decided to save loose change for a month and donate this to the Sandy Hook fund….see more information at  http://www.ctpta.org/SANDY-HOOK-FUND.html.

The pain and sense of loss will never really go away, but that’s because we care.  I’m a big believer that the good in people and in the world is always more powerful than the bad.

So, I’m back.  I won’t be talking about this much anymore and I will continue to write about the little things in life that make us feel good as it relates to design, but I will always be praying and thinking about the families and community of Newtown.

~M