Six Word Memoirs on Life Stories

TheProsperousArtist says,

You should post this in Questions.

I was on the phone delivering a client session, blissfully unaware of anything. She'd heard that a plane had just crashed into the WTC and that it seemed to be big news, but we figured it was just news and could wait, and so continued with our session.

After we finished, I figured I'd turn on the (rarely used) TV and see what was up. Being in northern NJ, my TV comes from NYC, and, as it turned out, the main stations all had their antennas on the top of the towers. So they were all off the air. The only station I could get (CBS) was all fuzz (plus audio). So all those iconic images everyone else witnessed, I never saw. Meanwhile, people I knew were right there, up close and personal, and others lost people that day.

Of course by the time I turned on the TV, there were TWO planes, and it was pretty clear that the world had changed.

I had two weekends away planned for September and two for October, and was already feeling stressed and overwhelmed by it all. The September trips were a class in Boston that weekend, and a 3-day breast cancer walk in New York, ending in the city. Not surprisingly, both were rescheduled (remember, both city's airports were closed for days) ... for the two remaining weekends in October. (The walk was also rerouted, away from NYC - huge undertaking.) I learned a lot about keeping sanity through busy times that fall!

Most events of the day in the area were canceled and rescheduled, including a huge networking party. (When it did eventually happen, it was a much more solemn and commemorative affair.)

One thing that went on as scheduled (because they are people who serve no matter what the circumstances) was a completion evening of the Landmark Forum (an amazing course on how to have a great life regardless of your circumstances) that had taken place over the weekend, and that two of my friends were in. Only about half the course participants were there (one of my friends worked in NYC, had lost a nephew in the towers, and wasn't able to get home in time; the other made it there), so it was an intimate and powerful evening. I felt blessed. There was no better place to be on that particular evening than in a three-hour conversation with other people about what it takes to be powerful in the face of Absolutely Anything. It was deeply moving.

They also held a second completion evening that Thursday for those who couldn't make the Tuesday session, and my NYC-working friend came to that one, so I went to both. Everyone seemed to agree that we were blessed to have been given these tools to cope with the unfolding tragedy.

Being so close to the city, my area was pretty devastated, at all sorts of levels - jobs, economy, loved ones lost, and a whole lot of fear of the future going on.

There was also a huge amount of love and compassion in the air, people I knew going to Ground Zero to help out, people changing their lives, connecting with each other at deep levels, and recognizing the preciousness of life.

It's just too bad it seems to take a tragedy for us to live better lives and love each other. And how quickly we seem to have forgotten what we learned that day.

Thanks for the reminder.