9-11

Every year, for 10 years, this date still makes me catch my breath.  I worked about 20 blocks from the Twin Towers, and lived close enough to where I worked that I could walk there in 5 minutes.  That morning I stood in the middle of Varick Street staring South taking pictures of the first burning tower, as the 2nd plane hit.  Our boss told us to come inside where it was safe, we had no idea what it all meant, or what it would come to mean.  The panic, the bewilderment, the terror, the heartache all unfolded as the whole world watched those beautiful icons and the almost 3,000 people trapped inside crumble before our eyes.  My city, my country, the whole world had changed in the blink of one sunny September morning.  The heartache is still palpable, the people are still gone, the war is still going.

I've never written down what happened that day, it's not necessary, I'm alive and that is more than enough.  I still cringe whenever I hear a low flying plane, but was a horrific day for everyone, whether you were here in the city or not.  Everyone remembers where they were, wherever they were, when the towers were hit.  My heart goes out to people who lost loved ones in the attack, almost 3,000 brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandfathers, grandmothers died that day.  That grief will never ease.

We all lost something that day, and I, for one remain shaken.  I can't forget that day, and I can't forget the sacrifices of all the people who fought that day and are fighting still to this day.  I am forever thankful to everyone who has given their life, and continues to put their life on the line for me, for my country, for my children's future.  And amid the devastation I have learned that resilience is the single best thing about being human.