Rally Stop - Charlottesville, VA
The rain has stopped and the sun is trying to peak in just a little; rain always brings growth and a sense of renewal. This park setting is surrounded by great scenery and the entrance is well marked that this is our next stop; no matter which way you choose to look their are visuals of the missing.
Families of the missing are greeted as they arrive and shuttle under the park shelter, others are filling balloons and their is a steady flow of busy people moving about to make everything just perfect. I stand back and capture all that is happening as I play witness to a community working together, all for one cause, the missing and its an accomplished feeling. Then a reporter steps up and begins to tell me about how he was affected years ago by certain stories of the missing and murdered, we share stories for while.
As the program begins and people share their journeys, I find myself wondering, will this always be like this, those who continue to vanish and those who devote their life to find them? Most of these cases here today are fairly recent, although one day is to long to suffer a missing loved one, but I cannot shake the thoughts of cases we have of 7, 15, 20 or even more years missing. I am weighed down by these intrusive thoughts today.
I had an elderly woman once tell me a long time ago that she would love to spend a day in my mind to see what all goes on and to have the knowledge and experience she felt I had in the world of the missing. As I was reminded of her and of her passing, for a moment I thought "yeah", I'd wish I could give it all away on someday's.
You see over and over, year after year, their are people in the thousands that wake up to a normal day of activities, then a window is slammed as they become a family now enduring the unknown fate of a missing loved one. Their life is on display for all to judge, they are afforded no privacy, they are forced to trust strangers with all they have to offer, as they try to hold onto that "hope".
One soon discovers that hope can be many things from, I hope they are alive, I hope I can get through this, I hope they find my loved one, I hope they can get a conviction and the list goes on. I say this all because I too hope, but I have come to understand that believing has to be attached to hope. We can all hope for situations to change, but without the action of faith - belief it normally does not. So in a simple thought, I know this tour we take each year brings forth that hope, but the actions and belief of so many that come together is vital in the process of change.
In a circle we prayed, then lifted our heads upward to watch the balloons set free with many announcing out loud the name of their missing person, their is was "that very moment", when hope was attached to faith - belief.
We depart from this stop feeling a renewal of the strength in our families we serve here.
Monica Caison LYMI
No comments:
Post a Comment