A Gift Gold, Scented, Bent Low

1. My white gold wedding band and engagement ring - a beautiful symbol of the love and commitment we made to each other almost 10 years ago...the gift of a happy marriage to my best friend.
2. The "Vanilla Spice" handsoap in my bathroom from Bath & Body Works...so yummy!
3. The many hearts and heads hung low in sadness over these many lives taken...words seem inadequate...the 'gift' here is almost hard to see...but, for me, it is in being able to see names and faces on the tv screen, and remembering these dear lives, and sharing sorrow and sadness with a community hundreds of miles away, and offering prayers to a God who I know hears and is grieved so deeply, too - its in the knowing that God is still a good God who loves and cares and can offer comfort and hope...its in the perspective and reminder of the frailty of life...the reminder of living each day as if it were your last...making sure to show kindness and hold close, the ones we love...the gift in this for me, too...is in the gratefulness of the two boys I have sleeping upstairs...and the compassion He gives us for a nation in grief...how it 'hits home' hearing their names said out loud, seeing their pictures, hearing small details of their lives...and choosing to not let fear run our lives...these words from a friend tonight, just a few miles from where this terrible tragedy happened just a few days ago in Newtown, Connecticut: "No, I will not let fear control this family, this home, this faith. I shamelessly accept the peace that has been given to me. Yes, I am filled with sadness but I am carried by hope. Yes, there has been darkness here but I have the light of the world. Peace to all tonight."