This morning was hard. A lot harder than Friday. Maybe it was the noticeable look of grief on the faces of other parents as I walked into my son’s day care. Maybe it was his teacher telling me that they’re going to start locking the classroom doors from now on.

Maybe it was how I suddenly became aware of this invisible but intensely palpable collective grief, fear, and sadness being felt by a million other parents at that very moment in time as they dropped their kids off at school.

This is the part of parenting they don’t tell you about. And they shouldn’t.

It was almost too perfect hearing John Lennon on the radio as I drove away from my son this morning:

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong

It is, but line four is the one to hang on. As are your memories. No terrorist can rob you of those. Act today in a way that creates as many positive experiences as you can.