Remember

Food wasn't on my mind today.  Memories of a more innocent time were.

I was fortunate that I stood on top of one of the World Trade Center towers as a child.  I have those memories.  And I have pictures.  My younger sister said it very well in her facebook post this morning...

I had to share this picture. My sister took it in 1983 when we were on top of the World Trade Center South. I was only 9 years old at the time, and I will never forget being on top of the world. I'm sad that my children will never know the NY skyline with those twin towers, sad they will not see the freedoms we lost that day and sad at the loss of life that was taken in just a few short hours and the feeling of loss that we felt as a nation. I am blessed to have parents who shared this great nation with us and made sure we saw as much of it as they could afford to share. God Bless the USA!

I took that picture at the age of 13 not knowing that in eighteen more years those towers would no longer exist.   It's a horrific reminder of the evil in this world and the temporary status of all earthly things.

We all have memories of that day 11 years ago.  I was home preparing for a workshop that I was presenting the next day out of town.  The kids were at school and I had the Today show on as part of my normal daily routine.

The story drew me out of my office and to the couch where I watched in horror as my brain tried to process what had just happened.  Was it a crazy accident that took that plane into the building?  And then...the second plane hit.

Even watching it now, I am crying and shaking.  It is still so unreal.

I had never felt so helpless, scared, and unsafe.  Of course, I called mom.  In fact, each one of us four girls called mom that day.  We needed to hear our parents and be comforted by them.  We needed them to make us feel secure.

And many, if not most of us, talked to God that day.  For some it was probably the first time in a long time.  Our prayers came in anguished cries, and tearful pleads, and soft wordless moans.  Each was heard.

Don't wait for another tragedy to reach out to Him again.