Sept. 11th, 10 years later

I wrote a post a few years ago, essentially answering the question, "Where were you on 9-11-01?" I don't have much to add to what I wrote then. It's hard to believe that 10 years has passed, that the world has changed so much (and in some ways, not enough). I never would have believed I would need a passport to drive two miles over the U.S.-Canada border to visit the cemetery where my ancestors are buried. I sometimes wonder what my grandfather (born on a farm near that cemetery -- he used to tell stories about rum runners driving down the back roads at night, during Prohibition...!) would think of all this. :(

CBC has been showing a number of 9-11 related stories from the Canadian perspective. I know if sounds kind of weird to have a favourite 9-11 story, but Brian Clark's has stuck in my mind these past 10 years -- maybe because he's Canadian, maybe because it's such a great story, and maybe because, as the reporter (Alison Smith) says, he tells it so articulately and well -- & I am so glad they revisited him. I love what he says at the end -- essentially that life is a gift, that it can all change in an instant, that we need to appreciate and enjoy every day while we're here. It's a lesson that is familiar to anyone who has endured traumatic loss & grief of any kind, I think -- but it warrants repeating over & over & over again.

(((Hugs))) to all.