Condolences to My Country

Condolences to My Country

I know no noble words to lift you into light

When Sorrow's shadow falls across your frozen heart

Let quiet candles melt away this wintry  night

Tomorrow, Time will call to play its chosen part

And through your tears you'll see your spirit slowly mend

Remember, then, to stay as open as a shrine

Where visitors can come to feel a glow again

Because your precious people's quiet candle shines

   ~R, 9/14/2001

9/11.  For most of us, this date will never again be one that blends in with the rest of the September calendar.  It will be remembered.
Always.
As a day our country was hurt.
Deep loss.
Confusion.
Fear.
Helpless.
So many of us Remember.
Some more than others.
Most of us have a story to tell from that day.  We remember where we were.  What time time we heard the news.  How we felt.
Clear Details.  That stand apart.

For me, it was my first year of teaching. I walked into my third grade classroom ready to greet my students during their second week of school.  They came in with stories to tell, drawings of planes and the towers, and many of them mirroring the reactions of their parents. Wearing adult feelings but not understanding them.  Just like the rest of us, they were trying to make sense of their 8 year old world.  And I, practically a child myself at 22,  was trying to do the same.

9/11 is a day to be remembered by all of us. But there is no way that I even begin to understand what that day was like for those that lived IN and NEAR the city of New York at that time.  Or those that had family and friends there and lost loved ones. I can only listen to their stories and feel a small sliver of what that day must mean for them and what it felt to BE THERE.  LIVE THERE.  And have so much of their HEART there.

So, today I remember what I can.  All of us do.  And my love goes out to those that were wounded most deeply on this day.   I listen to their stories and wrap my arms around then in spirit.

Words are really all we have sometimes.  I saw so many touching posts this morning on facebook and online.  But the words below, written 11 years ago by my coach in New Jersey, is one of the most beautiful things I've read in regards to 9/11.  It is most beautiful to me because of the picture of hope, love and human resilience that it paints.  And because I've heard parts of what this day was for him, a person that not only lived and worked THERE but had family and friends that were there.  I'm so glad he agreed that I could share.  I think you will find beauty in his his words from 11 years ago as well.

Condolences to My Country

I know no noble words to lift you into light
When Sorrow's shadow falls across your frozen heart
Let quiet candles melt away this wintry  night

Tomorrow, Time will call to play its chosen part
And through your tears you'll see your spirit slowly mend

Remember, then, to stay as open as a shrine
Where visitors can come to feel a glow again
Because your precious people's quiet candle shines

   ~R, 9/14/2001

Amanda 
Follow Runninghood on Facebook or Twitter