Perry, Iowa, shares Minneapolis’ sorrow after a senseless shooting.
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The Sacred Place We Share
Chelsie Thoren
We’ve walked the halls where silence fell,
where laughter died beneath the bell.
We’ve seen the sky grow dim too soon,
the morning robbed, the song, the tune.
You’re not alone in shattered grace,
we too have seen that sacred place
where backpacks wait but hearts are gone,
and still, somehow, we carry on.
The pews that held your prayers tight
now echo tears through endless night.
Yet faith, though trembling, does not cease,
we light a candle, beg for peace.
January 4th, 2024
I walked beside my daughter, small,
just seven, Rosie, brave through all
the horrors children shouldn’t see
inside a school or sanctuary.
Together through the storm we came,
and now we grieve with you, the same.
From Perry’s pain to yours today,
we send our hearts, we kneel, we pray.
We know this grief. We wear it too.
It binds our broken souls to you.
So hold each other, speak their names,
be soft with wounds and gentle flames.
Though healing feels a distant shore,
you’re held by those who walked before.
And when the weight feels far too much,
may love arise in every touch.
From one small town that weeps with you,
we send you hope, and strength, and truth.
Chelsie Thoren is a high school registrar, writer and survivor with her 7-year-old daughter, Rosie, of the Jan. 4, 2024, school shooting at Perry High School in Perry, Iowa.
Proximity to pain is the through-line. Those who don’t have it have been too willing to marginalize it.
