today is one more tragic day in the usa, another mass shooting with this one coming on the heels of Buffalo and Santa Fe and on the eve of the anniversary of George Floyd’s murder… happening at an elementary school in Texas where the students were to finish their school year on thursday, this massacre brings up Sandy Hook which occurred 3448 days ago and in the almost decade since we have suffered 3500 mass shootings… this moment of eternity is for deep mourning, it seems so fitting to memorialize this moment with a picture i created on this day five years ago: the 5th of my 13 painted ponies, the children’s prayer pony… painted in the fall of 2001, with prayers of children of many faiths for all the children of the earth, this pony shares heartfelt messages of hope for seven generations… with these prayers in our shared field let’s come together in the field out beyond to sing our grief with these words of one of the great Irish bards…

“No one knows the wonder

Your child awoke in you,

Your heart a perfect cradle

To hold its presence.

Inside and outside became one

As new waves of love

Kept surprising your soul.

Now you sit bereft

Inside a nightmare,

Your eyes numbed

By the sight of a grave

No parent should ever see.

You will wear this absence

Like a secret locket,

Always wondering why

Such a new soul

Was taken home so soon.

Let the silent tears flow

And when your eyes clear

Perhaps you will glimpse

How your eternal child

Has become the unseen angel

Who parents your heart

And persuades the moon

To send new gifts ashore.”

~ John O’Donohue ~