Reflection Time

Things I had time to reflect on.

Yesterday, if you had not heard, Milford, the little town I live in had an active shooter just 2 minutes from my home.

Needless to say work took a backseat.

The morning in my town was pure chaos. Sirens, police everywhere, barricades all over town, me texting back and forth with close friends I knew were in the area, the helicopter flying over head numerous times, worrying because my husband's work got locked down and of course I had the police scanner running and me, being me...scanning every Facebook post I could find to learn something new about the developing situation.

I sat with doors locked, and I was ready to act if I needed to. Thankfully it didn't come down to that for me.

Anywho, in my perusing of Facebook, the name of the shooter was leaked so I searched for him on Facebook and of course found him as did many others.

About 4 weeks ago, he had this long, deranged (public) Facebook post rant about his life, and how he had lost everything - his wife due to cheating, he lost his kids, house, all his possessions, he went on and on and on...half the post didn't even make sense. This man also has past arrests and is a registered sex offender. Clearly...he had several issues.

But, my point is this...obviously, I saw several of his friends comment "Are you ok?" with no response from him. And don't get me wrong, I don't think what he did yesterday was right by any means, but a sound, stable person doesn't run around town shooting people because he's had a bad run in his life. CLEARLY there are mental health issues at play.

LONG winded post to just say -- if you SEE any of your friends on Facebook posting "crazy" shit....don't just comment on Facebook, "Are you ok?"

Give that person an actual call. CHECK on them with a human, caring, and compassionate voice -- who knows...maybe if someone did that (I am only assuming no one did if he felt so alone) yesterday may not have gotten to where it did...IDK what the answers are for mental health help....but maybe it's OUR friends and family that begin with the journey of help.

Just a thought...today, check in with those you think may be struggling...check in with more than a text. Use your voice. Be grateful you can. Some people's voices were taken tragically yesterday.

Thanks for reading. 😊