It’s amazing how a traumatic incident can touch so SO many lives in SO many ways and that the repercussions can be felt long after the initial incident.

I think that some who have never experienced a life altering traumatic incident just can’t understand, but those who have been initiated in a way that would have never wished for can relate all too well.

Even just 5 years ago, I would not have said that we, as a family, had had HUGE traumatic things to deal with. I now know that to not be true; but in my living, functioning memory it seemed true.

Since then, We’ve had too many (even one is too many) tragic things touch our lives.

There is ALWAYS good that comes out of a situation like this.

I am also surprised at how far reaching the bad that comes out of these moments can be.

Jeremy came to me last night before bedtime and wanted to talk to me. I was in Siah’s room putting a few things away and he came in all serious and sat down on the floor beside me.

I had a bad dream last night, Mom.

Really, Jeremy? What was the dream about?

It was really bad. Even when I woke up I was still scared. It was a bad one, Mom!

What happened, sweetheart?

Uncle Chris had told us not to play with some baby bears, and we didn’t listen to him. We thought that they were so little and cute and that they were safe to play with. Then the momma bear came and got really REALLY angry. She thought we were hurting the babies. We all started to run away, but you know how Uncle Chris can’t run…….well, we all ran away and he was stuck there……and we got away and he didn’t and when I woke up I was shaking and scared really bad……

He was so sad and upset. It was awful. I can see how I’ve been affected by the things that have happened over the past few years, but to see the effect that it has on my kids……it’s hard.

I know it was “just” a bad dream and that people often have bad dreams, but that’s not typical for us – for our family. And to see that the dream was about the loss of a loved one….it was just sad.

Life is so fragile. Life is so precious.

Take the moments that you have and treasure them. Tell those that you love, that you love them. Take time out of your busy day to “connect” with someone…family, friends. Don’t get caught up in the busy-ness of life and forget about who or what is really important. Live your life with no regrets. You can’t turn back the clock…..make the most of “now”.