Always Remember

I used to sit as a child and look through a big brown book my grandmother had about World War II. The images were startling, graphic, and unforgettable. “Always remember that this is what war really is.” she would tell me. Sometimes generations of people start to forget the pain, the sacrifice, and the loss that it takes to keep evil from over running the world. Sometimes we want to relax in the relief that we are not the ones who had a personal loss, or perhaps, we want to focus on the good times that came after. Always remember the truth. Not in a heart full of hatred, but in a heart full of awareness. A heart that remembers to let your children know the struggle is the truth, the peace that comes after would never happen with out the sacrifice of many.

It is with this in mind that I take a moment to remember 9/11/ 2001. The day I sat on the couch folding laundry, just 2 1/2 weeks away from giving birth to my oldest son. The moment my heart broke when the news flashed across the screen. The second I stopped breathing when the towers fell and the tears that wouldn’t stop falling. I was filled with pain, anger, disbelief, and despair. In the weeks that followed we all watched as Americans united together. No one cared for the rest of that year about religion, race, belief, or choice. Everyone just stood together. United in strength that comes from courage to stand in the face of heartbreaking loss.

Hero’s where born that day and a nation wept together for the loss of so many. We became strong through the pain and faith, hope, love, acceptance, was all reborn in this nation. The only things that will carry us through, the things that matter the most.

Always Remember. ALWAYS.