A Day We Can't Forget--Remembering 9/11

Hello friends. Hello family. Hello strangers and acquaintances, new people and longtime followers. Hello fellow human beings. Because when it comes down to it, isn't that what we all have in common? That we are human beings?

Today is a special post. Today its not about me, today is not about music posts, today isn't even about my classes and homework and to-do lists. Today is about love. And life. And remembering those we've loved who lost their lives during the terrorist attack that has deeply scarred The United States of America on September 11, 2001. This exact day 16 years ago.

I'm writing this post because I have something to tell you.

I want to tell you where I was and what I was doing and how much I remember. I don't remember much, but what I do remember is burned into the back of my mind for life. I remember being 6. I was in my first grade class in Grand Rapids, MI. 

I remember chaos and confusion. I was so young, and we had school, but something was very wrong with the teachers, they all looked so scared.

I remember going home early. I remember my mom eagerly awaiting my arrival home and holding me tightly in her arms when I got there. 

I remember tears. I remember seeing those around me cry at the loss of the loved one who belonged to a friend of a friend of a friends relative. Or just a total stranger who lost their life searching and attempting to save the lives of others who were in those two monumental buildings.

I remember not knowing how to process this. I was only six you see. How does a six year old girl comprehend hatred and violence through terrorist attacks on the very country she calls home?

Now I am 22 years old.

16 years have passed, but not one year has this day gone forgotten from the hearts of Americans.

This is a day we have mourned.

This is a day we have been hurt.

This is a day we have been broken as a country.

But this is also a day when we need to stand together.

We stand together as a community of fellow human beings, all living life trying to get from one day to the next, and maybe leave a legacy of love behind while we are at it, trying and striving to make a difference in this world.

Those that don't agree with leaving a legacy of love will fight back quite strongly because they disagree with our methods of loving.

And so we fight back too. We do not give up or lose ground by fighting back, as we fight back with kindness, however. We fight back with love and compassion. We take this world and we love it upside down, until the hate is flushed out and taken aback by our methods.

I will stand beside you who is reading this or hearing it via video on my Facebook page. I stand beside those who have lost loved ones, or who know someone who has lost a loved one through the plane crashes on this day 16 years ago. And I stand beside the lives lost, the hearts broken, and the people who ache for a community that simply remembers to love.

Imagine what this world could look like if we stopped looking at the disagreements and the differences between us, but rather, we payed close and detailed attention to the similarities that draw us closer together as American citizens, and even global citizens who share the right to be human together. 

This day was not just an attack on New York. This day was an attack on the hearts of America. I sit here writing this in my captain america shirt, not just because it's a symbol of a comic book hero, but because it is a symbol I choose to use to represent me and my love for this country I am so blessed to live in. So today, as we truly remember what happened, our hearts can beat as one as we long to change the world with our love. 

Because the American people who embrace the true embodiment of what it means to be an American are strong people. We are loving people. We are more than just fast food, fast cars, and fast life. We are for freedom. We are for love. We are for unity.

There is chaos and commotion and conflict all over the world. There are natural disasters, terrorists, and wars. There are so many problems that come at us, but we will not be defeated. Because we will love this world, love OUR world, to the point where our hearts will beat as one, and I can walk side by side with my worldly neighbors and be free to lead a life of love and compassion and joy.

Can you imagine it? A life where we are one? I sure can, and one day, we'll see it come to be whether in this life or the next. We will see love win.