Scarlett Lewis
Benefitting Choose Love Movement
Scarlett Lewis is the mother of 6 year old Jesse Lewis, one of the children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary in the deadliest mass shooting at an elementary school in U.S. history. In the years since her son’s tragic murder, Scarlett has dedicated her life to the prevention of school shootings, and her work has reached people all over the world with its insightful, compassionate, and practical messaging, putting front and center the person desperate enough to commit such a heinous crime: a human being in pain.
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In this episode, we talk about:
What the first moments and days post-shooting were like.
The roles that shock and love play during trauma.
Returning home after the shooting.
The process of forgiveness and healing.
How all school shootings are preventable.
Wise Words
I turned around to give Jesse a hug and I noticed that he had written in the frost with his little fingernail, 'I love you' and he had drawn hearts and all of my windows and I just thought that was amazing. I knew that that was one of life's moments and so I said, you stay right here, hold on for one minute, I'm going to run in and get my cell phone. Ran in, got my cell phone, I remember positioning him right by the message, I took a picture. I actually deleted a picture because it was overexposed. I took another one, then I took a close-up of the actual message and then I gave him a big hug and kiss and put them in Neil's car and that was the last time that I ever saw him and that was the last picture ever taken.
I know that I was in shock and I love shock because it numbs you a little bit, and your body is an amazing thing because it really kind of helped me slowly introduce my new reality and I don't know, I feel like it kind of protected me a little bit in those first few days.
I saw this message that Jesse had written on our kitchen chalkboards, literally the side of my oven it's a wall, but I had spray painted it with chalkboard spray paint and he had written a message shortly before he died. That was the first time that I saw it and he had written three words, nurturing, healing, love. They were phonetically spelled because he was in first grade and just learning how to write. But I was just flabbergasted. I couldn't believe it and it stopped me in my tracks. It was incredible.
I knew that he had had a spiritual awareness that he wasn't going to be here for very much longer. I knew it, and he wanted to leave a message of comfort for his family and friends and I took it as that, nurturing, healing, love, but I also knew that it was a message of inspiration. I knew that if the shooter who had been a student at the school whose mother had even taught at the school had been able to give and receive nurturing, healing, love that the tragedy would never have happened. It was so simple and I knew in a way that I would be spending the rest of my life spreading that message.
Start thinking about what you think about and choose one loving thought over an angry thought, replace an angry thought with a loving thought every day, and by doing that, you'll positively impact yourself, those around you, and through the ripple effect, you will make this a safer, more peaceful and loving world.
I think it's very important that we remember that he was a human being and he was a human being in pain and that means that that shooting was preventable and all school violence, all school shootings are preventable, 100%.
One of the most important lessons that I've realized is that there are only two kinds of people in the world.
There are good people like you and me, and then there are good people in pain and that's a hopeful statement because there's always something that we can do to help ease that pain.
Healing literally means forgiveness.
Forgiveness is the key to having healthy relationships and healthy relationships are the keys to happiness.
When you have the courage to be grateful when things aren't going your way, the courage to forgive, even when the person who hurt you isn't sorry, doesn't care, or may not even know, and then the courage to step outside of your busy-ness and distraction and all that you have going on to help someone else, you are choosing love. You're taking your personal power back and you're making the world a safer, more peaceful, and loving place.
When kids feel safe, when they feel seen and connected, when they can manage their emotions, when they can grow through difficulty that they might face and even be strengthened by it, when they can make responsible decisions, they're not going to want to harm one another.
Links
Charity: Choose Love Movement
Facebook: Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement
Instagram: @chooselovemovement
Website: Shop Choose Love
Learn: How To Sel