Also on this day my heart is also burdened with a family that we know personally, who lost their father/husband on this day last year from suicide. They have trudged on, as do most families who fall victim to senseless tragedy, but I'm sure today is a hard day for them. If you're praying type, send one out for Kendyl today, and her girls - and her young son.
Our friend DanO is in NYC working for RenewNYC. He attended the 9-11 memorial this morning and he sent me these words and pictures:
My heart hurts today. As the "I love you" and "I miss you" balloons soared into the air this morning, I was overcome; overcome with my complete insignificance, my perceived needs and my ever-effacing weakness and fallability. How do you expla
in to children about their mom or dad? How do you come to that decision to leap from the burning building some 100 stories from the ground to certain death, knowing if you stay that inevitability faces you as well. The courage to manage enough control to find peace and make that decision... Today is the 7th anniversary of September 11, 2001. Most of our Nation has slowly put it behind them...the healthiest and most pragmatic approach. Not here though. The streets of Lower Mahattan where I work are lined with tens of thousands of mourners. Its the collective grieving and 
the bell tolling outside my window that shows this pain may never ebb. Many people I work with here are survivors; in the towers when they were struck that early Tuesday morning seven years ago. There are no politics, no sides, no parties. They're Catholics and Protestants, Jews and Gentiles, Muslims and Athiests, standing side by side, together as one. As each name is read and as the family members move down a ramp to the bottom of the hole where the towers stood, I reflect with great emotion how fortunate I am. How loved I am, How precious my moments here are as a woefully imperfect human being. Please take a minute to reflect on what you value and who you love. Tell them, show them, share with them. Pray for one another for no other reason but because you love them. As this next 60 minutes unfolds, allow your perspective to empathaize with those who were called from us that day. 
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2 comments:
Sad that most of America is so removed from it. Talking to New Yorkers in my travels thes past years and asking them about it. They recount their stories as though it happened yesterday. The emotions they have are still raw. Some talk still with a sense of unbelief that it ever happened because of the sheer magnitude of the destruction. Their stories really keep my feelings alive from that day.
Maybe because I am so much older than your readers, cause I am the MIL, which makes me older, but I DID notice that today--not too many flags...I feel there should have been a flag out, if only one small one planted in the soil! AND, I am one who wants to say "no more it is too painful, and too sad", but less us NOT FORGET.. watching those who perished, those who jumped, those who gave their lives knowning, the one who said "Let's Roll"...Can we ever say that phrase and not think of that day and that man... WE Can NEVER forget..No matter how painful, no matter the sacrifice........Pray for the families of those who have paid a dear price..........
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