September 11--12 Years Later

They call it "Patriot's Day" these days...I'm not exactly sure why. When I hear "Patriot's Day" I always have to stop and think before I realize what is being referred to.

However, you say 9/11...and my mind flashes back to the morning a little girl, almost ten, crawled out of the bottom bunk and wandered out of the pink room she shared with her big sister. I remember the horror, the shock, and the fear that that little girl felt as she seated herself on the well-worn gray couch and stared at the building that was on fire just minutes before the second airplane plowed into the other tower.

I do not remember if that little girl prayed, though she probably did in some odd sort of way. I remember watching the buildings crumple, the reporter's screaming and yelling, I remember the hole in the Pentagon, and the pit in the Pennsylvania field were Flight 93 when down.

I imagine that little girl probably shared a vague wonder with her sisters (and other military children), if that meant that their Daddy was going to have to go to war. As it turns out--daddies did go to war. Ours never deployed, but he was an important part all the same, training young men how to fight.

In some ways, life was never the same again...my family escaped with no personal loss. Others were left heartbroken, scarred, and maimed for life. For these, on this 12th anniversery of one of the most horrific days our country (and most certainly that my generation) has seen, we should pray.

So then, with solomn prayers for those fellow countrymen, for our troops, and for our country, I leave you for today...

        Racheal