International Peace Garden at U.S. and Canada Border
Everyone who is old enough to remember, can tell you where they were on September 11th 2001. It is a moment close to our hearts, written there as a reminder of both loss and of our vulnerability . . . How quickly and completely life can change.
Sitting next to a man, at the International Peace Garden 9/11 Remembrance Service last week, I learned that he was asked to go to a place, which was on a list of potential targets. He assured his mother he was safe, but he didn’t know if that was true. None of us really knew what else was going to happen. We were all waiting.
The skies were silent where I lived at the time. Except for one plane allowed to land at our small airport, in a community of 35,000 people. Having watched pictures of planes hitting the Twin Towers, my four year old neighbor boy, asked his mom if the plane was going to hit a building.
Years have passed. Wars have been fought. Soldiers have died and been maimed in battle. First responders from police, fire, and medics have suffered lasting physical and emotional consequences of being at ground zero. There has been, and continues to be, great suffering.
This past week we remembered again. Stories were told of those who died on 911. Stories of their essence, the joy they brought, of people they loved and were loved by. Memories of lives they lived before that tragic moment, in that terrible day.
An image by a young artist, remains with me, through these years. In the drawing the Twin Towers are burning. Above the towers is Jesus,the great comforter, gathering each person into an eternal embrace.
“Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God.
“With gentle words, tender and kind.” Isaiah 40:1
International Peace Garden
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A Pastor's Heart 
Yes indeed… and the markers never quite fade away.
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❤❤❤
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I was driving to the base Fitness Center at Nellis AFB near Las Vegas… listening to NPR I heard the announcer break in and say that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. Shortly after that, my Commander called (I was assigned as a Chaplain instructor at the Desert Warfare Training Center) and said we were being recalled. We exchanged instructor hats for our combat specialties. Working with and supporting our Security Forces personnel as they tried to actually implement the protective measures that had been simulated in the past. I would return home about 48 hours later after working with my squadron an hour north of Las Vegas at a remote air field.
My son had gone to school without his ID (kids never took ID’s with them to school) and his mother was very concerned. What to do… I told her to keep him in school where he would be with his classmates and teachers and that our Security Forces guards would let the busses on base with no problem. One of his teachers was from NYC and lost a good friend of hers who was a firefighter.
Etched into my memory… and still all these years later it still makes me pause and reflect. I was in Afghanistan and Uzbekistan four years later taking my turn in the deployment cycle. The world changed that day… for a brief moment there was unity… but only for a brief moment. Uff dah!
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As a Chaplain, there must have been much to deal with as you worked with the people in your care. Such important work to be with the men and women who were deployed,. A couple in my church had a granddaughter, whose friend was on one of the planes that hit the Twin Towers. The longer we live, the more markers of trauma we accumulate. I’m so grateful for a loving God who carries us through those moments.
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Burned into my memory. My daughter’s first day in college. The collapse of both my mother and father in law and driving around New Hampshire and Massachusetts hunting for beds in hospitals — which were unavailable because they were all on alert for warfare victims. How close the towers were to where we had lived in NY. A whirl of sadness.
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Oh, so much to deal with at one moment in time Maren. What a difficult time for you on both a personal level, and the collective level we all experienced.
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