Today after church, I decided to go out and run some errands. I needed to get out—get away from constantly checking my phone for the devastating alerts of the tragedy in Kerrville. Over the past couple of days, I have tried distracting myself, but at the ping of an update I want to see if they have found any of the missing.
Without any conscious purpose to my errands, I chose the first item on my To-Do List—to have my charm bracelets cleaned at James Avery. Not until approaching the counter did it dawn on me that James Avery is from Kerrville. I wondered aloud if James Avery would create a charm to commemorate the tragedy and raise money to help the community. After a strange look from the sales associate, I told her the story about one of the very charms dangling from my bracelet,a commemoration to one of the darkest times in our country’s history.
In 2001 after the tragedy in New York on 9/11 I decided that I wanted an American Flag charm to commemorate the day our country stood still. I remember driving all over San Antonio, to every James Avery store trying to find a flag charm. They were sold out. Location after location told me the charm was sold out because other people, like me, wanted to commemorate the day. To commemorate is to remember, honor, or acknowledge—and for me, formalizing with a charm symbolized “never forget.”
Because there were no flag charms left, I decided on another charm for the 9/11 commemoration, a simple, small star.
Nearly 25 years later, a star charm seems even more fitting than the flag. The shiny star reminds me of the small but infinite flickers of light in the darkest of times for our country. People—numerous as the stars—were each others’ light as we made sense of the enormous loss of innocent lives. We will never forget the lives lost in Kerrville, and we will choose to memorialize their spirits in whatever way we can-whether it be in prayer, in actions, through words, or in charms.