Last week’s honoree was Nancy Lanza, mother of the Sandy Hook shooter, Adam Lanza. Sadly, Nancy was the first victim in the shooting. I wonder if that was because she was desperately trying to stop her son from committing this terrible act or if Adam realized that she would intervene if he left the house with guns, etc. Either way I’m sure that Nancy felt great responsibility for what her son was about to do and thus, felt guilty.

This is every parent’s worst nightmare–that the choices we make or don’t make will produce a child who is capable of great harm to the community. The hardest job in the world is to parent and it is often a very thankless job. So, this week I decided to do something a little special for a young mom in my community who is doing her best to get it right. Since she is in the “active phase” of parenting and doing it on pretty much on her own, it’s easy to be stressed. And on those days in my own life it was nice to know some “veteran moms” understood completely what I was enduring. Their own acts of kindness often helped me hang in there. So, I hope my small act of kindness helps her, too. Just paying it forward!

How about you? What did you do to honor Nancy? Please let me know via the submission box below or via the Contact page that you participated. Right now we stand at 26 acts of kindness to date!

Today’s honoree is Jesse Lewis. Jesse was into horses, something that will probably sound familiar to the folks in my community, since I live in rodeo country. Here’s what CNN had to say about Jesse:

Jesse Lewis, 6

Tomorrow’s Post: A Look Back…

Last week’s 26 Tuesdays honoree was Chase Kowalski. Chase wanted 2 front teeth for Christmas. Since I’m not a dentist or orthodontist, I don’t think I can do something to help someone get their two front teeth. Thankfully, Chase was already a triathlete at the tender age of 7. While I have completed a 3 day walk, I am the first to confess that I’m running-challenged for a variety of reasons. And being running-challenged, alone, would probably keep me from completing a triathlon.

I am fortunate to be surrounded by a plethora of people who have made running great distances a part of their lives. They inspire me since they are often running to support great causes, such as cancer research or heart disease prevention or feeding starving people in other countries.

There is so much more to running these events than just training and paying the entrance fee. Often, there is a fundraising minimum and inevitably, one is buying new running gear of some sort to replace the worn out stuff from training so hard. Then, there is the blister aid stuff, hydration beverages (while training) and nutrition measures needed. In some cases my friends and family are also traveling great distances to participate, incurring hotel, air, car and additional meal expenses.

Thus, I decided my act of kindness would be to offset some of these “unseen” expenses for my “other-centered” friends. After all, the good book encourages us to “finish the race” before us.”

Today’s honoree is Nancy Lanza. If her last name sounds familiar, there’s a reason. She was Adam Lanza’s mother and the very first victim of the Sandy Hook tragedy. I confess that I have mixed emotions about Ms. Lanza. On the one hand news reports describe her as a good mother who tried to get help for her son, Adam. On the other hand she encouraged her son to be around guns. While I do support the 2nd amendment, the counselor in me does feel that those who have really serious mental challenges should probably not be around guns.  But, I also don’t think that Ms. Lanza deserved being killed by her son for this possible lapse in judgment. All of us, as parents, fail at some aspect of parenting and I hope I never have to pay for my parenting lapses as Ms. Lanza did. My prayers are that we all work harder at being diligent parents and getting our children help when needed. Here is what CNN wrote about Ms. Lanza:

Nancy Lanza, 52