Somber Week

I had grand visions of blogging about all the hotspots I was going to get to go to with POTUS this week. No offense to anyone out there, but I was going to get to see both exciting Wilmington, DE AND Lanham, MD. Well I did get to go to Wilmington but my trip to Lanham was cancelled because of the devastating earthquake in Haiti. I was going to blog about going to DE to go to the funeral of someone I had never met. But it was actually a pretty easy day- just driving two hours and then going to a mass and then eating lunch and driving back home. I couldn't think of anything really witty to say about it and besides, poking fun at the small details of going to someone's funeral just doesn't seem quite right to me!

In all seriousness, the service was quite somber at times but a wonderful reflection on a life well spent. Mrs. Biden (VPOTUS's mom) was 92 and in that hour I was sitting watching the mass (I was in the overflow room watching it on video), I really felt like I knew her. It was one of those moments where I reflected on my life so far and thought about one day (hopefully waaay down at the end of my road) I can only hope that such wonderful things can be said of me.

Then Tuesday night, the devastating earthquake hit Port-au-Prince and it really has put things into perspective in some ways. Anything I was concerned about (not worrying about since my New Year's resolution was to not worry) before really isn't a big deal anymore. Seeing those images is really hitting me hard. It's kind of hard for me to avoid the images at work all things considering. I don't often talk about my network but I think it's doing a fabulous job covering this story. I even went home from work and watched. I sat and cried for a while watching our coverage. It is truly heartbreaking. Seeing those people in such utter devastation with that look of shock in their eyes really gets to me. Yet I can't turn away. I think it's partially the news nerd in me but also just the human compassion side of me that keeps me tuned in. The stories coming from there are gut-wrenching and simply watching it stirs me to pray (another part of my New Year's resolution!) I'm praying obviously for the people of Haiti because they need it desperately right now. I pray that they will cling to hope and find the true source of Hope. I'm also praying for the rescue workers as well as my colleagues in the media and specifically at my network. The images they are seeing in real-life have to be a lot to take in. So after you've prayed for the victims (and please pray a lot for them!!), please pray for the rescue workers and my colleagues- that they will be able to emotionally process what they're seeing.

Meanwhile, I've decided that HGTV is a great distraction from when I've needed a break from watching the coverage! I promise that my next blog post won't be nearly as serious. It's just a little difficult (and probably pretty inappropriate) to be light-hearted and funny during such a serious time.