Remembering

Nine years ago today the world was so much different. The big picture as well as my little snapshot.

It was such a beautiful day. I had a three month old infant. I had just dropped off both girls at school,  the four year old little girl in pre-school and the first grader. They both went to school now for the whole day  This is a very exciting milestone in a stay-at-home mom's life. This glorious day belonged to me. I was just getting used to this new routine. New baby, new schedule. (There's that schedule thing again..I'm telling you, schedule should have been my middle name.) I walked in the door of my growing house. We were undergoing renovations and if I close my eyes I can still see the "mess" I was in. (I'd give my right  t.. uhh, leg for that mess versus the mess I have now--little kids, little mess...etc.) The phone rang and it was my older sister. "Heya...how you doing?" I was standing in my very cute little den, Sis said "Something awful has happened. Very awful, turn the TV on. A plane just flew into the World Trade Center." And so beauty of the day disappeared.

Fast forward 9 years.

Today's weather is just like it was on that awful day. A  glorious and beautiful fall day. Our expanded house could use a lot moooooore stretching. The itty bitty TV that I turned on to watch the world change, is in the basement under a few inches of dust with the rest of the yard sale stuff. My sister still calls me when big things happen in the world, because she calls everybody. Me first though.  That little den is now a very dirty room which belongs to an eighth grader and a tenth grader (formerly the pre-school kid and first grader.) The infant is nine, he is full of all the piss and vinegar that a little boy is supposed to have. (That's how I justify his off the wall antics...What??? He's a boy!)  We have a bigger TV and a little more stuff then we did back then.

And life goes on. It just does whether we want it to or not. It's happy memories and those close to us that enables us to move forward with our chins up. On this day of reflection, I'm remembering how much I cherished my family and pulled them a little bit closer to me in the weeks and months following 9/11. I am blessed by God's grace to still have my nucleus intact. For that I am grateful on this beautiful and glorious day.