{"id":3584,"date":"2016-03-23T14:01:57","date_gmt":"2016-03-23T13:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/omily.me\/?p=3584"},"modified":"2016-04-19T20:26:26","modified_gmt":"2016-04-19T19:26:26","slug":"als-zonneschijn-surrealistisch-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/omily.me\/en\/als-zonneschijn-surrealistisch-is\/","title":{"rendered":"When the sunshine is surreal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"When<\/a>Yesterday morning I brought the two boys to school and it was such a normal day. Caleb stayed home with papa. I came back home to find him on papa’s lap, and for probably the first time in his little life, he preferred to stay with papa. With a very self aware smile, he looked at me, pretending to be a little shy. And then his face went back to the baby Einstein movie he was watching on papa’s phone. Total bliss radiated from his face.<\/p>\n

As we sat there adoring our youngest, we were interrupted. A friend called on papa’s phone, to ask us if we had heard about Zaventem.
\nWe had not.
\nA few seconds later we were scrolling through the newswebsites, looking for the very latest bit of news.<\/p>\n

Yes, we now knew.<\/p>\n

1 casualty. 4?casualties. 6. Up it went, along with another explosion. And so as far as we know right now, the count is up to?34.
\nA lot of others wounded.<\/p>\n

After reading the news, I went with my sister to wash her car and buy fresh milk. It was a nice day. Sunny. Summery. Trees with blossoms and birds that sing and life goes on.<\/p>\n

Soon the questions came in, about whether we are safe and yes, we are. We are going right on with our lives, picking up fresh milk and happy children at the school gate.<\/p>\n

We aren’t that far from Zaventem, but quite far enough to be safe.
\nIt’s closer to home then Paris, that’s for sure. Although even Paris seemed close.
\nCompared to Sinjar, Nigeria, Bagdad?
\nParis, at 6 hours away, that is close.
\nZaventem, at 20 minutes, that is really close.<\/p>\n

I’m glad I can say I’m safe. I’m glad I can say all my friends and family are safe.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, that means those 34 people are someone else. Someone else’s wife and husband and child and friend. And so, although I am so happy to be spared today, someone else is going through it. It could very well have been me. It’s a little surreal to me, how my life goes on like this.<\/p>\n

Someone else is wondering why the sun is shining. This day, of all days. As they wonder and worry and get the dreaded confirmation call that yes, it was your loved one that died. Someone else is wondering at this very moment, how they will go on. They will have an empty place at supper tonight. There will be 34 empty beds tonight with no nope of recovery.
\nAnd then there’s the wounded, and the worrying and anxious waiting, will they make it?<\/p>\n

I think of our friends K* and E*, from Iraq. When the offices in Brussels had an overload of refugees in September, we had a young couple over here. A few weeks ago they stayed the night again, as they had an early morning interview in Brussels. I think of them and how his?brother and her dad, they were not fine.?They did get the phone call and they had the empty bed. How they fled this and now it’s coming over here, catching up to them. Here, in the place where they’d hoped to be safe.<\/p>\n

And I hope nobody looks at them angrily, tells them they should have stayed home where they came from.
\nI hope nobody tells them they are not worth it. That if some terrorists came in through the masses, we would have preferred them to stay back there where they came from, with the terrorists. We don’t want to help you if the cost is that high.<\/p>\n

Because we do and you are worth it.<\/p>\n

But yes, I am safe today. Safe in the arms of Jesus. Safe whether I live and safe whether I die because even if , even if? He is still good. He always is.<\/p>\n

Today I picked up my children from school again. It was 12 when I was walking to the gate, and my heels made a lot of noise. Only after I had walked through the small crowd of other parents did I realise it was 12, it was a minute of silence for the victims of the Zaventem attack.
\nA minute of silence for those who lost someone, a minute of silence for those who died, a minute of silence for those who were wounded. A minute of silence for friends of days long gone by, who still haven’t heard anything from their son who was probably standing close to the explosion when it took place. A minute of silence for someone I used to play with on those awkward moments when you have to play with the children of your parent’s friends, who you don’t know all that well.
\nA minute of silence for people who I don’t know at all and whose pain I can’t feel or imagine but who I have to almost cry for anyway. Almost, because I blink and keep it in. I feel like I have no right to cry when their pain is so huge and why not me and why can’t I fix it? A minute of silence, is it all I can do?<\/p>\n

Psalm 16:8 “I keep my eyes always on the LORD. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”<\/p>\n

Psalm 119:50 “My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves”<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday morning I brought the two boys to school and it was such a normal day. Caleb stayed home with papa. I came back home to find him on papa’s lap, and for probably the first time in his little life, he preferred to stay with papa. With a very self aware smile, he looked at me, pretending to be a little shy. And then his face went back to the baby Einstein movie he was watching on papa’s phone. Total bliss radiated from his face.<\/p>\n

As we sat there adoring our youngest, we were interrupted. A friend called on papa’s phone, to ask us if we had heard about Zaventem. We had not. A few seconds later we were scrolling through the newswebsites, looking for the very latest bit of news.<\/p>\n

Yes, we now knew.<\/p>\n

1 casualty. 4?casualties. 6. Up it went, along with another explosion. And so as far as we know right now, the count is up to?34. A lot of others wounded.<\/p>\n

After reading the news, I went with my sister to wash her car and buy fresh milk. It was a nice day. Sunny. Summery. Trees with blossoms and birds that sing and life goes […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[112,47],"tags":[144,145,147,146],"yoast_head":"\nWhen the sunshine is surreal - Omily<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"[:nl]Als de zonneschijn surrealistisch is[:en]When the sunshine is surreal[:] - Omily\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Yesterday morning I brought the two boys to school and it was such a normal day. Caleb stayed home with papa. I came back home to find him on papa’s lap, and for probably the first time in his little life, he preferred to stay with papa. With a very self aware smile, he looked at me, pretending to be a little shy. And then his face went back to the baby Einstein movie he was watching on papa’s phone. Total bliss radiated from his face. As we sat there adoring our youngest, we were interrupted. A friend called on papa’s phone, to ask us if we had heard about Zaventem. We had not. A few seconds later we were scrolling through the newswebsites, looking for the very latest bit of news. Yes, we now knew. 1 casualty. 4?casualties. 6. Up it went, along with another explosion. And so as far as we know right now, the count is up to?34. A lot of others wounded. After reading the news, I went with my sister to wash her car and buy fresh milk. It was a nice day. Sunny. Summery. Trees with blossoms and birds that sing and life goes [...]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/omily.me\/als-zonneschijn-surrealistisch-is\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Omily\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-23T13:01:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-04-19T19:26:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/omily.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/When-the-sunshine-is-surreal.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"940\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"788\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Omily Brignola\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@omilybrignola\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@omilybrignola\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Omily Brignola\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"9 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/omily.me\/als-zonneschijn-surrealistisch-is\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/omily.me\/als-zonneschijn-surrealistisch-is\/\",\"name\":\"[:nl]Als de zonneschijn surrealistisch is[:en]When the sunshine is surreal[:] - Omily\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/omily.me\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/omily.me\/als-zonneschijn-surrealistisch-is\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/omily.me\/als-zonneschijn-surrealistisch-is\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/omily.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/When-the-sunshine-is-surreal.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-23T13:01:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-04-19T19:26:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/omily.me\/#\/schema\/person\/62611e7463b683659fa29ef3a82729ad\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/omily.me\/als-zonneschijn-surrealistisch-is\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/omily.me\/als-zonneschijn-surrealistisch-is\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/omily.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/When-the-sunshine-is-surreal.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/omily.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/When-the-sunshine-is-surreal.jpg\",\"width\":940,\"height\":788},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/omily.me\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/omily.me\/\",\"name\":\"Omily\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/omily.me\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/omily.me\/#\/schema\/person\/62611e7463b683659fa29ef3a82729ad\",\"name\":\"Omily Brignola\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/omily.me\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1987338c3a4230f50609ee9548b9f636?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1987338c3a4230f50609ee9548b9f636?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Omily Brignola\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.omily.me\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/omily.me\/en\/author\/omily\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"[:nl]Als de zonneschijn surrealistisch is[:en]When the sunshine is surreal[:] - Omily","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"[:nl]Als de zonneschijn surrealistisch is[:en]When the sunshine is surreal[:] - Omily","og_description":"Yesterday morning I brought the two boys to school and it was such a normal day. Caleb stayed home with papa. I came back home to find him on papa’s lap, and for probably the first time in his little life, he preferred to stay with papa. With a very self aware smile, he looked at me, pretending to be a little shy. And then his face went back to the baby Einstein movie he was watching on papa’s phone. Total bliss radiated from his face. As we sat there adoring our youngest, we were interrupted. A friend called on papa’s phone, to ask us if we had heard about Zaventem. We had not. A few seconds later we were scrolling through the newswebsites, looking for the very latest bit of news. Yes, we now knew. 1 casualty. 4?casualties. 6. Up it went, along with another explosion. And so as far as we know right now, the count is up to?34. A lot of others wounded. After reading the news, I went with my sister to wash her car and buy fresh milk. It was a nice day. Sunny. Summery. Trees with blossoms and birds that sing and life goes [...]","og_url":"https:\/\/omily.me\/als-zonneschijn-surrealistisch-is\/","og_site_name":"Omily","article_published_time":"2016-03-23T13:01:57+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-04-19T19:26:26+00:00","og_image":[{"width":940,"height":788,"url":"https:\/\/omily.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/When-the-sunshine-is-surreal.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Omily Brignola","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@omilybrignola","twitter_site":"@omilybrignola","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Omily Brignola","Est. reading time":"9 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/omily.me\/als-zonneschijn-surrealistisch-is\/","url":"https:\/\/omily.me\/als-zonneschijn-surrealistisch-is\/","name":"[:nl]Als de zonneschijn surrealistisch is[:en]When the sunshine is surreal[:] - Omily","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/omily.me\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/omily.me\/als-zonneschijn-surrealistisch-is\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/omily.me\/als-zonneschijn-surrealistisch-is\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/omily.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/When-the-sunshine-is-surreal.jpg","datePublished":"2016-03-23T13:01:57+00:00","dateModified":"2016-04-19T19:26:26+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/omily.me\/#\/schema\/person\/62611e7463b683659fa29ef3a82729ad"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/omily.me\/als-zonneschijn-surrealistisch-is\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/omily.me\/als-zonneschijn-surrealistisch-is\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/omily.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/When-the-sunshine-is-surreal.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/omily.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/When-the-sunshine-is-surreal.jpg","width":940,"height":788},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/omily.me\/#website","url":"https:\/\/omily.me\/","name":"Omily","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/omily.me\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/omily.me\/#\/schema\/person\/62611e7463b683659fa29ef3a82729ad","name":"Omily Brignola","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/omily.me\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1987338c3a4230f50609ee9548b9f636?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1987338c3a4230f50609ee9548b9f636?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Omily Brignola"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.omily.me"],"url":"https:\/\/omily.me\/en\/author\/omily\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/omily.me\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3584"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/omily.me\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/omily.me\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omily.me\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omily.me\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/omily.me\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omily.me\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/omily.me\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omily.me\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omily.me\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}