Ten Years Later

September 11, 2001 -- forever etched into our memories.  Every person in America, alive and old enough on that day to truly understand the events that unfolded before us on live television, can tell you where they were and what they were doing.  I was working around my house in Danbury, Connecticut, prior to going into work at 2 PM at a local office supply store.  After hearing that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center, I turned on the television a few minutes after the second plane had found its intended target.  Glued to the TV, nothing else got done around the house, and I had to pull myself away when it came time to go to work.  The store was unusually quiet that day, few sales and stunned people quietly conversing as they checked out.  Danbury, Connecticut, had many residents who commuted to NYC for work, and the fear and disbelief at the magnitude of the event was palpalable everywhere.
Over the last 2 days, my husband and I have watched numerous programs on television, pregnant with stories of pain, suffering, and survival, of that fateful day.  Repeatedly, we watched recorded history as the planes hit and the towers crumbled violently in massive cloud of debris and dust.  Yesterday, we watched as the reflecting pools were dedicated, as the names of all of the victims were read, as people touched the names of their loved ones on the brass plates encircling the pools, and as people wept and remembered that day.  At first, I thought I'd tire of seeing tragedy relived, but I didn't.  It's not that I enjoyed it -- not at all.  I just don't want to forget that day.  I don't want to forget that hundreds of thousands of people were literally traumatized by being part of that terrorist attack, either by being in the buildings and surviving, by being in the area and having to be evacuated, by running for their lives when the towers fell, by knowing that loved ones were trapped in those towering infernos, or by losing a loved one either on one of the planes or in the towers.  No, I don't want to forget that their lives -- and ours -- were forever changed -- and why.
The lunar cycle is at full moon right now, and as I sat outside the other night, gazing upon the shadows of the moon's soft light bathing our back yard, I thanked God for the peaceful place in which I live; for the fact that I can sleep without fear; that there aren't gunshots ringing outside our doors; that we have a large greenspace that we can call our own; and that we have multiple blessings of family.  America is a great nation -- although not without problems -- and I thank God that her people are resilient and strong. 
"When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."  2 Chronicles 7:13-14
The Word of the Lord is forever true.