In the past two weeks, my ceiling collapsed and my refrigerator died, taking all my frozen wild edibles with it. I feel blessed. I’m alive. And these problems have solutions.
Having lived in NYC for 20 years and worked in the twin towers, it’s hard not to think about what happened on this day six years ago.
On September 11, 2001, I owned a home outside of NYC and had been running my Virtual Assistant business for a little over one year.
In the ensuing six years I don’t feel spiritually, emotionally or financially better off. We have lost many of our civil rights and we have made life so much worse for people in other parts of the world.
Notes from a previously published article:
September 11, 2001 was a glorious autumn day. I voted in the primary election and went off to a Chamber of Commerce committee meeting.
Some time before 9:00 AM the phone began to ring incessantly. After 15 minutes we gave in and answered it. The caller told us to turn on the TV. We stood speechless at the sight of the first World Trade Tower collapsing.
I burst into tears while everyone else grabbed their cellphones, unable to get through. My colleague put her arms around me as I sobbed that my husband was working not far from the WTC site at the US Postal Service. We cancelled the meeting - and the two-day Business Expo we’d worked for a year to set up. I don’t remember driving home.
By the time I parked the car, the second tower had collapsed and two planes had crashed. A friend of my husband called about noon to tell me he was OK, but that all the bridges and tunnels out of NYC were shut down. I went outside and sat by my little pond. The normally soothing sound of the waterfall and bullfrog’s song did nothing to comfort me. I tried to focus on the beauty of the
crimson and gold maple leaves against the cloudless blue sky. I was convinced that this was the end of the world. I prayed, “Please God, remember that two acres of planet earth are cleaner for my having been here.” We’d worked so hard to turn our homestead into a nature retreat.
My husband finally got home some time after 10:00pm. He’d gone outside after hearing the first tower collapsed and watched as someone jumped from the collapsing second tower. Dust and debris had covered everything for miles. He certainly has not been the same since that day.
It was not the end of the physical world, but life in the US will never be the same. I grieve for the loss of innocence and for the children who will never grow up with the sense of safety and freedom that allowed me to become a confident adult.