You don’t need to know where I was or what I was doing on the morning of September 11, 2001.

It’s not necessary to fill you in on my childrens’ ages at the time or the scramble to get them gathered under my wing. How my mental checklist was instantaneously rearranged.  It makes no difference to your life about my age, my race, my gender, my marital status, my cultural perspective, or even my faith at that time on that day.  No.

In those moments 25 years ago, though, every one of those things mattered supremely to me. As the same things in your life did to you.

We WERE who we WERE.

We ARE who we ARE.

And here’s the gist: the space between those two personas, the then and now, could’ve been formed in a much different, much bleaker, deeply darker direction. 

Today is a day for noticing. Taking stock. 

Life is hard. It could’ve been harder. 

If you’re too young to remember, good. Don’t let anyone make you feel bad that you don’t remember. You’ll have experiences in your life that younger generations won’t be able to relate to. It will be your job to make sure they don’t feel guilty about that. It doesn’t make any generation superior to another depending on what they live through. It’s what you do with it that counts. Take away from it. Apply. True, you should learn about the events and the cascade of events following September 11, 2001. Absolutely. And remember as best you can that sacrifice isn’t always chosen, unlike the remembrance of it. And that bravery is an outpouring of a life well lived in the days leading up to the need of it.

The young man I had been married to for only 18 years on that day in September of 2001 has now been my husband for 43 years. He’s not “old” old (and neither am I!) but we are knocking on the door. 

Today that guy and I are choosing to be driving through Thermopolis, Wyoming. “Why?” say you incredulously, “would you actually choose that? Never heard of it.”

Because we can, dear one. Because we can.

Freedom. 

Not to be taken lightly. 

Take stock.

Practice bravery.

Choose wisely.

And above all,

” . . . whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to the God and Father through Him.” Colossians 3:17

Much love,

MM

P.S. Please understand, even though I did not regale you with details of my life, my perspective is eternal and this world is not my home. Everything I do or say, even the air I breathe, is covered by my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His dominion over it all. It is still, however, my calling to live as best I can as a citizen of the community into which I was born. . . . for such a time as this . . . (look it up in the context of the Book of Esther).