September 11, 2001
I turned on the television the minute that the 2nd plane was hitting the towers. I did not know about the 1st plane, and my immediate thought was that it was an innocent yet horribly tragic accident.
But the following moments play like a blur in my mind, I just remember racing to the phone to call everyone I loved. First on the list that morning, my parents.
They were in Edison setting up our soon-to-be opening Curves location. With no television or radio hooked up yet, my call was the first they heard about 9-11. I was crying, and my mother (like me) thought it had to be an accident. As I rambled on about what the newscaster said and the vision I saw live on the morning news, my mother was in disbelief.
My whole family got together that day, went to church, prayed out loud. We went back to my parents home learning more and more as the hours that turned into days passed.
We are only about 40 minutes outside of NYC. Stories of friends and clients we knew emerged, who was on the steps about to walk into the office, who lost a loved one, who didn’t make it out, who missed the train that day and never made it to work. You can’t make sense out of any of it. You can’t understand why some were taken, others lived. There is no logic, and the “reason” we will never know.
I pray for peace. Peace of mind and heart for those who lost loved ones and peace for those who carry anger, or guilt, or sadness, or judgment, or weight of any kind. Peace for those who would stop at no end to hurt another human being. Peace for us to live without fear, to accept and love each other, even in our many differences.
“When I look out the window, I exhale a prayer of thanks for the color green, for my children’s safety, for the simple acts of faith like planting a garden that helped see us through another spring, another summer. I inhale some kind of promise to protect my kids’ hopes and good intentions we began with in this country. Freedom of speech, the protection of diversity — these are the most important ingredients of American civil life and my own survival. If I ever took them for granted, I don’t know.” ~ Barbara Kingsolver
