Grateful

For this blog some posts are quick, natural.  Just let the words flow.

If a topic strikes me I usually don't have to labor long to get the prose out to the reading public.

It's been a while since I've done a longer flow post.  You might be seeing a couple in the coming days as I have topics itching to become words here.

And a few posts are more difficult.  Either I'm writing about something emotionally painful or it may be otherwise labor-intensive than most of my entries here.

Today is one of those posts.

Last Thursday I traveled to Manhattan (Kansas) with the plan to return on Saturday evening.  A professional venture in the loose sense of the term.  Actually that's my verbiage to describe a Rotary Club training event.  But anyhow, it wasn't like I just decided to go east on a lark.

Friday all-day stuff comes and goes.  So does the Friday evening tough pork chop meal but hey, it beats rubber chicken.

I'm back in the hotel room and enjoying a good read when the iPhone rings.  It's the wife.

And the tone of her voice, before she even gives me any details, tells me something's not right.

She and our child are on the floor of the master bedroom.  Staying away from the windows.

There was a shooting in the park just yards from our house.  The gunman is still on the loose and the reverse 911 system made a call out to alert the whole town.

Wife has her handgun within reach.  Clip is loaded.  Daughter has her Bible open, looking up the verses that deal with being afraid.

They're terrified.  And what good am I, some 200 miles away?

I did pray right then and there, over the phone.  I still felt very helpless.  

Understandably it took me a long time to get to sleep.  And the sleep I did have was fitful.

By the next morning I knew no news was good news.  I didn't call home or text them too early, figuring they had less sleep than I.  Later, during one of my breakout workshops, I got a text from wife indicating perp was caught around 1 a.m. near the town of Oberlin.

Things wrapped up and I was home just after dark on Saturday.  Thankful for safety and that my gals had the right tools in a crisis situation.

I write this to not only let family know what happened but also perhaps as some therapy for myself.  And I am very very grateful.

How difficult was this to write?  So challenging it took me more than one sitting to complete.