Twenty-two years ago my husband and I were driving home from the hospital, still in shock. My dad had died. The fact that he was gone was only beginning to land. One of us suggested stopping at the bakery for doughnuts to take to Mom’s. “Wait,” I said. “They won’t be open. Dad died.” I paused, then caught the mistake. The bakery would be open. Only my world had stopped that morning.
On September 11, 2001, the wider world stopped too. Most of us were in shock as the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon came into view. The news hit me almost as hard as my father’s death. Stranger still, I was at Walter Reed Army Medical Center that day. I watched our nation’s service members do what they are trained to do: defend and protect. It was a defining moment of my life.
As we remember 9/11—the lives lost and the people who ran toward the danger—I hope you will do more than recall the date. Reflect on how you want to live from here. What are you doing to make the world better?
Are you managing your emotions and your stress, or are you letting the meanest parts of the news run you? Are you looking for what is still good: the heroes, the kind, the brave? Pause today. Remember. Then decide how you can make a positive difference—first in how you treat yourself, then in how you treat the people around you. Take care, and let your brilliance show up as ordinary kindness.