A Joyful Practice

Anne Marie’s Life & EXCERPT: “Accepting Rachel’s Challenge & Entering the Garden” (the “missing” post-practice Monday post) April 20, 2026

“Happy Riḍván!” to those celebrating “the Most Great Festival.” Peace and many blessings to everyone and especially to anyone Counting the Omer and/or celebrating and/or observing the Second Week of Pascha & Radonitsa or Provody (Day of Rejoicing /  Commemoration of the Dead)!

Happy Poetry Month!!

This is the “missing” (and backdated) post-practice for Monday, April 20^th.  The 2026 prompt question was, “What is on your heart and on your mind?”

WARNING: This post and the excerpted post reference Columbine High School and mass shootings. This post also references suicide. You can request an audio recording of this practice or a previous practice via a comment below or (for a slightly faster reply) you can email myra           (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

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“ANTROBUS: …. Oh, I’ve never forgotten for long at a time that living is struggle. I know that every good and excellent thing in the world stands moment by moment on the razor-edge of danger and must be fought for — whether it’s a field, or a home, or a country. All I ask is the chance to build new worlds and God has always given us that second chance, and has given us [opening the book] voices to guide us; and the memory of our mistakes to warn us. Maggie, you and I must remember in peace time all those resolves that were clear to us in the days of war. Maggie, we’ve come a long ways. We’ve learned. We’re learning. And the steps of our journey are marked for us here.”

— quoted from The Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder

Seventeen-year old Rachel Joy Scott was one of the “voices to guide us”. After she and twelve others were killed, on April 20, 1999, her family found her notebooks full of messages that have stood the test of time. If you click on the excerpt title below, you will find a little of her story and the names of the others who were killed 27 years ago.

What you will not find is the name of Anne Marie Hochhalter, who was also a 17-year old at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. Ms. Hochhalter was shot and left paralyzed from the waist down by the same person who killed Ms. Scott. She died on February 16, 2025, at the age of 43, because of sepsis complicated by the gunshot wounds she sustained in 1999. Her death is officially listed as a homicide — making her the fourteenth victim.

“Hindsight is always 20/20. We’re 20 years past the point of Columbine, and I can see where I went wrong [in coping], and that was in delaying counseling. I cannot stress that enough. Students and teachers that were there at Columbine, the people that didn’t lose a loved one or who weren’t injured, that they weren’t ‘that bad,’ they might have thought that they didn’t need it. That’s a lie, and it’s come back to bite a lot of us in the butt 20 years later because we put it off.”

— Anne Marie Hochhalter, quoted from the (Feb 16, 2018) Women’s Health interview, “‘I Survived Columbine And It Feels Like Nothing Has Changed: We haven’t addressed mass shootings at all.’” by Jessie Van Amburg

I don’t remember hearing about Anne Marie Hochhalter’s death last year. When I did hear about it, I thought about editing the earlier post(s); but then I thought about her life. See, despite her paralysis and the fact that she lived with severe pain for the rest of her life, Anne Marie Hochhalter also became one of those “voices to guide us”. She spent the rest of her life advocating against gun violence, supporting other survivors of gun violence, advocating for supplemental Social Security payments for people with disabilities, and training rescue dogs. She did all of that while also working and establishing her own independence. She did all that while also dealing with her own physical and emotional pain and trauma from the attack that left her paralyzed, as well as the trauma and grief related to her own mother dying by suicide (and using a gun, no less) six months after the Columbine High School shooting.

Anne Marie Hochhalter was an avid proponent of the NoNotoriety Movement and the “Don’t Name Them” campaign. When I wrote the earlier posts, I did so with that movement and campaign in mind. And that’s the other reason I’m only going to add an extra link to those earlier posts: Anne Marie’s voice is heard (and one of her challenges accepted)…in the silence.

Click on the excerpt title below to learn about Rachel’s Challenge and a little bit about Riḍván, “the Most Great Festival”

Accepting Rachel’s Challenge & Entering the Garden (a Saturday post-practice compilation)

“I had counseling in the very beginning, but I was still in such a fog and a daze so I thought that I was okay. But I recently started it up again this year. I figured, Better late than never! But now, looking back, I wish I had been in counseling that whole time. It has a greater effect on you than you think, and it’s a delayed reaction. So many of my classmates have said the same exact thing.”

— Anne Marie Hochhalter, quoted from the (Feb 16, 2018) Women’s Health interview, “‘I Survived Columbine And It Feels Like Nothing Has Changed: We haven’t addressed mass shootings at all.’” by Jessie Van Amburg

The post excerpted above includes statistics about mass shootings. This year, I didn’t find reliable updates; however, from Friday the 17th until the morning of Monday the 19th, there were 11 shootings (that I know about) directly affecting 58 people (that I know about). Clearly, some of us are not listening to the right voices and accepting the right challenges. But/and, it is also true that sometimes we need to ask for help.

So, here is a third challenge: If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, dealing with depression, and/or struggling with addiction, I dare you to ask for help. It might be the hardest thing you do. It can also be the best thing you do.

“Having a support system around you of your friends and family is so important. Having people just to sit there when you’re feeling down—not to offer advice, just to sit beside you. Or take you out of the house, find you something that you like to do. Because if you just sit ay home and don’t go out, it just destroys you. It can destroy you. So counseling and having that support system are the two most important things I can think of.”

— Anne Marie Hochhalter, quoted from the (Feb 16, 2018) Women’s Health interview, “‘“I Survived Columbine And It Feels Like Nothing Has Changed: We haven’t addressed mass shootings at all.”’” by Jessie Van Amburg

There is no playlist for the Common Ground Meditation Center practices. 

If you are thinking about suicide, worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, you can dial 988 (in the US) or call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also call this TALK line if you are struggling with addiction or involved in an abusive relationship. The Lifeline network is free, confidential, and available to all 24/7. YOU CAN TALK ABOUT ANYTHING.

White Flag is an app, which I have not yet researched, but which may be helpful if you need peer-to-peer (non-professional) support.

If you are a young person in crisis, feeling suicidal, or in need of a safe and judgement-free place to talk, you can also click here to contact the TrevorLifeline (which is staffed 24/7 with trained counselors).

You’re Invited to Bend… & To Take The Deepest Breath You’ve Taken — On Retreat!

September 25 — 27, 2026

### I DARE YOU TO LOVE, BE NICE, & ASK FOR HELP! ###