By Haley Platt

The murder at the Tree of Life Synagogue affected me a lot more than I ever imagined it would. Many people from my past reached out with words of advice on how to handle the emotions I was experiencing. No words were able to help me cope with the fear and sadness that I was experiencing. When it all became too much and I felt hopeless, I did what any 22 year old girl would do: I Googled it. "How to heal after a tragedy" led me to Good Bones, a poem by Maggie Smith. The last few lines of the poem read: 

Life is short and the world

is at least half terrible, and for every kind

stranger, there is one who would break you,

though I keep this from my children. I am trying

to sell them the world. Any decent realtor,

walking you through a real shithole, chirps on

about good bones: This place could be beautiful,

right? You could make this place beautiful.

Cece stitched the last line for me and I keep it on my desk at City Hall. My stitch is a reminder to myself that it is my duty to my community to strive to be the best citizen and leader that I can be. Even when the world feels cold and helpless, we can all work to make it more beautiful.