The sun was shining on the bright blue morning while families were getting ready for the day.
Tiny handprints blew kisses, held hands, colored pictures, and waved goodbye.
They were off for an adventure, another day and although no one knew it,
Today was going to be difficult.
You can say a lot about that chilling December day,
Our world lost beautiful children and adults in a blink of an eye.
We lost heros, teachers, sisters, daughters, sons, mothers, students, leaders, and love.
The world lost these tiny little handprints full of hope, ready to reach out to the world..
It’s difficult to believe that it actually happened,
And even when you heard those tragic words with your own ears,
You still thought it wasn’t true ‘cause no one could deserve this.
It’s difficult when your tears speak a thousand words, yet you still feel silent,
When you don’t want to let hate and violence win the war, but you think you can’t fight.
It’s difficult to internalize how one single day has changed you and everything around you,
To accept where everything is now, when one day ago you were wrapping Christmas presents.
How can one find inner peace through all these emotions?
How do we become peaceful with ourselves and “face the other person”?
And even when It’s quite difficult where we stand today,
when we are in a world where those little tiny handprints have gone away.
We as a society, must fix what we’ve done, the standards we’ve made.
We as humans, must reach out to one another and be there for each other.
We as leaders, must change our gun laws.
We as people, must protect our children; our little handprints.
We as educators, must protect our schools from harms way.
We as families, must learn to forgive mistakes and nurture one’s future with kindness .
We as peacemakers must be the change that needs to be made..
We as the voice for those tiny handprints, must reach out and find a solution.
We as veterans of peace, must be the voice for the voiceless.
Because we can’t let us lose another set of beautiful tiny handprints.
Let these tiny handprints build the way, to a brighter and safer day,
For if it wasn’t for those brave tiny handprints, they wouldn’t hand us life’s beautiful lessons.
And so, Let these tiny handprints bless us, and empower the world with love, hope, and peace.