On this day, the 8th anniversary of the day America changed, it just doesn't seem right to compose a post about the cookies I baked today. Or the football game I'll attend tonight. Eight years ago everything changed, yet my memory of the day is still crystal clear. I am still as angry, sad, heartbroken, mortified, as if it had happened yesterday. I wonder if that will ever change.
It just doesn't seem right for me to write about my thoughts or emotions on what happened September 11th. There are so many people more qualified to write that post and tell their story.
What I can speak about is the little lesson that I learned 8 years ago. The habit I picked up.
I am always reachable.
My cell phone never leaves my side and it's usually in my hand. On a walk, at the pool, grabbing the mail, a quick run to drop off my kid. I am reachable.
The phone calls that were placed that day haunt me still. People calling for help or speaking to a loved one from a hijacked airplane. Husbands calling their wife one last time from the top of a burning building. I always think, as horrific as that situation was, they could make that one last phone call.
So my phone is by my side. And I hope and pray that I never have to use it for this kind of situation. I hope and pray I never get that kind of call. But if my phone does ring, I will be there to answer.
I thought at first it was a remote control-- which is the lesson I learned that day. That even though there is absolute evil, at some point, you have to turn it off because you can't take in anymore. It's very easy to watch all of that footage and be shocked, horrified, anguished again and again, but at some point it is a very healthy thing to say "there is nothing productive I can do by continuing to take this in".
ReplyDeleteI felt soul-sick in the days that followed 9-11, and still do when I think about it, but I held my babies a bit closer and my Spouse too. And after watching too much footage of the horror, at some point I just had to turn it off and spend time with those I love.