Ten years ago, I remember the day. I drove to Downtown Dallas, walked into the elevator and pushed forty-four. My office overlooked the Dallas skyline. When it happened, I watched on a television as the buildings fell. Surrounded by my legal colleagues, we all had the same face. Shock. Sadness. Disbelief. As a precaution, the partners at the law firm decided to let us go early and I remember running and jumping into my car, and calling my husband, who was in Houma, Louisiana.
What was he doing when the buildings fell? His hands were on life. He delivered a baby at the precise moment when the first building fell.
It means something. I know. But I don’t always understand it. How in any given moment, you may be experiencing a tragedy, and another person at the exact very same moment may be celebrating a birthday, an anniversary, a milestone. How sorrow in one corner weeps, while in an opposite nook, laughter is seeping through the walls. Ten years later I still don’t understand it, how it all makes sense. I believe the best way to honor those who have loved and lost is to really embrace those in your life. Honor them by saying “I love you,” or complimenting them or laughing with them. Remember loss, but honor life.
Please observe a moment of silence for those who lost their lives on that September day and for those all around the world that face unfathomable tragedies everyday.
Welcome! I am a lawyer turned freelance writer, essayist, and editor. On staff at Literary Mama and the co-founder and co-editor of the literary journal, The Sunlight Press, my essays and reported work have appeared in The Washington Post, The Lily, Saveur, Civil Eats, Brain, Child, ESPN and elsewhere. I am currently at work on a memoir on grief and culture and how it provides perspective on life’s ordinary graces. I invite you to appreciate the ordinary with me. I hope my daily practice of seeing the magic in the mundane helps you celebrate and find more of these moments in your life too.
Important words here, remember loss but honor life. I think we will always remember where we were on that day …. All morning I have been watching the ceremonies and the stories of family left behind. It’s sad and inspiring at the same time.
Beautiful. Just beautiful.
Yes. Our lives go on, and remembering to live them is the best gift we can give those who died.
Remember loss, but honor life. – beautiful, and absolutely what we should do.
I think of that often…how babies are born all the time no matter what craziness is going on. So true!
You are so wise in your reference to honor life–on this day of recognition of those citizens who met their death by mass murder. On that morning my job as a school principal was to protect our children and support the adults who were responsible for intensive guidance in those early hours. Under it all lie my fear for my country and the loss of the freeds we took/take for granted. Why does disaster have to be our call to love more, pray harder, and cherish our blessings with greater fervor? Thank you for the opportunity today, Rudri….Trish
Very lovely and what a joyful moment during such a sad time. Your husband must have many wonderful memories and stories.
I’m thinking of a conversation I had today with a friend and mentor about the word “universe” and its meaning “everything rotated as one”. There’s so much in our daily lives that whisper our connectedness, our oneness, and your post seems to fit the very definition of the word.