9 - 11

Tomorrow is the anniversary of that day in 2001, September 11th, when the terrorists hijacked and flew planes into the World Trade Center, into the Pentagon, and took down the plane in PA.  It is a day when we remember all the innocent people who lost their lives and the families they left behind. It is a day when we honor those firefighters, the police officers, and the civilians who ran "in" to danger to help, and did incredibly courageous acts. Some of them didn't make it "out."

It was an awful day for America.  A surprise attack on the United States. On our turf.   It was something not done here since Pearl Harbor.

On that date we put politics aside because we all felt very vulnerable and scared.  We were unsure who was attacking us and why.  And how it could happen.  It had started out as such a beautiful early fall day in the east with a clear sky overhead (we later learned one of the planes flew through  that sky directly over our town on it's way towards the World Trade Center.). 

I lived in Sparta, New Jersey, a small city just about an hour away from New York City.  It was a town close enough that some of our citizens commuted into NYC for work each day.  On that Sept. 11th I was with a group of women and we were having our first "Sparta Friends and Neighbors"club meeting of the new year.  All of a sudden during the meeting cellphones started ringing. One by one.  After a few calls were answered we realized what was happening. We stopped and most went home to check in with loved ones, and to turn on their TV's.  We were all in shock.  It's one of those times when you always remember where you were when you got the news.  And, since we all lived so close to NYC, we worried about who might have been there that we knew personally. 

I will admit it was a time in my life that I felt very nervous, and I felt my bubble of a happy life was shaken up.  I felt so sad in the following weeks.  The local NJ newspaper ran the obituaries of all those who died. Pages and pages of them.  There were pictures of  young fathers, many were businessmen or were fire and police men.  It was incredibly sad. 

I was mentally, emotionally, and physically effected. 

Today, as I remember back and remember that day, I think about all the people around the world that live in places that go through the same sadness and the fear that I felt -  because they too live in place where war and terrrorist acts happen by their homes.  There are so many families today that experience the same pain of these senseless killings. 

What happened on Sept. 11th here put us in the same boat as others in the world.  Not a good boat.  But, I for one know how they feel.  Let's pray for peace around the world.  Pray for safety. Pray for those affected by the acts of  terrorists everywhere.