A DAY TO REMEMBER...

It was a beautiful morning, not a cloud in the sky and I began to brush my teeth when my phone rang. It was my friend Jamie calling. "Go to the roof, there's a fire at the World Trade Center and you can see it from there". I still had my toothbrush in my mouth and took the phone with me as I climbed the stairs to the top of my apartment building. There it was, a fire at one of the towers. There was another man on the roof with a camera, he ignored me. I still had Jamie on the phone,"what happened?" I asked, and he told me that a small plane had hit the Tower. I kept brushing my teeth and listened. Wait! What's that plane doing? Jamie was talking into the phone but I couldn't hear him. There was a plane and oh my god, it just flew into the other tower, oh my god. I looked at the man standing next to me and asked,"Um, did you just see that plane fly into the building?". He said he wasn't sure. "What?! That huge, gigantic plane? It just purposely flew into the building, you didn't see that?!?" I told Jamie we were under attack and the line went dead. I ran down to my apartment and got onto my computer. I wrote my parents a letter explaining what I had just seen. I told them I thought we were under attack and that's I'd just watched a big black plane intentionally fly straight into the World Trade Center and that the phones were not working. I told them that I loved them and that I loved my sisters and I said my final good-bye. I closed the windows, kissed my animal companions and told them to be safe, that they would be taken care of. I ran downstairs to the street and somehow ended up in the dog park. A co-worker spotted me; he told me to go home, close the doors and windows and wait, he didn't know what was happening either but we needed to get inside. A plane flew over and we ran, crouching in terror, running until it was out of site. Finally we slowed, walking silently, hand in hand, back towards my apartment, watching the towers burn and the people jumping and the ladders glittering in the bright sunshine and then it all started to crumble. Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god...my brain could not grasp the magnitude of what was happening. There were no words, just sounds emanating from my soul. The ladder was gone, the building was gone...there was just smoke, tons and tons of smoke and paper and clothes flying everywhere. People were falling to the ground, running away, dialing their phones desperately trying to reach somebody, anybody. Sirens blared as I bid farewell to my temporary comrade and stumbled back to my building. As I began to climb the stairs, I noticed all the other tenants doors were open; I kept going. When I got to my floor, I could hear my neighbors TV on. I peeked in, there were 6 people silently staring. "Are we under attack?" I asked.  "Maybe, come sit with us". I went for my animal companions and returned. We all sat together for hours; waiting, crying, and wondering what our fate would be while we helplessly watched the fate of our neighbors and friends and loved ones, wishing for someone to tell us what to do. Seven people, for years living just feet away from each other and remaining strangers until the moment when we all became instantly aware that we didn't want to die alone.
September 11th, 2001.
That was 10 years ago, an event that changed the world and changed our lives. Now I am here, trying to find some wise words to share about that day, some great yoga lesson to pass on and inspire...but I've got nothing. While it was a day where ordinary people rose out of the rubble and became heroes and survivors, it was also the worst day in the history of my life and many others. It was senseless and terrible and although some may find the lessons in this tragic event, I still have not come to a place where I can somehow spin this horrific day into anything but what it was, a day in which thousands of beautiful lives were lost.
Let us remember and let us be kind to all other beings, may peace prevail..."lokah samasta sukhino bhavantu"

"May all beings everywhere be happy and free and may the thoughts, words and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and freedom for all"

namaste ~


~ the thoughts and opinions expressed above are solely mine and are in no way a reflection of those who are more highly evolved