September 11

so i know that today is September 11 - and today marks the 10 year anniversary of the devastating terrorist attacks on the United States.

however, i'm having quite the difficult time remembering that.

oh don't get me wrong, i totally remember that day 10 years ago. i was 11 years old and i remember watching in shocked horror as planes were flown into buildings and crashed into a field. i will never forget that day.

what i mean is that i'm having a difficult time concentrating on remembering that tragedy when another tragedy is staring me in the face.

it's amazing to me how oblivious some folks are to how severe the flooding is/was. i work at a bank as a teller which means i talk to a lot of people. and it blows my mind to talk to people who were unaffected by the water and have no clue how horrible some families have it.

we know several families personally who lost just about everything. and my heart breaks for them.

this afternoon D&I went and helped one of those families begin to clean up. and it was amazing to me how well they did. i think if my house was destroyed, and i had to go back to sift thru all the muddy remains, i would be devastated. but no, they plugged along and worked hard - and said through it all "praise God we all made it out safe".

so, it's not that i'm discounting the 10th anniversary of 9/11 - absolutely not. there are men & women who laid down their lives 10 years ago today so that others might live and we should always remember their sacrifice.

i am just so overwhelmed by the devastation just a few blocks from my house.

after 9/11, there were reports of neighbors helping neighbors. and i consider that the greatest honor we can pay those folks who died 10 years ago - instead of concentrating on ourselves, we should look out for our neighbor and consider his needs higher than our own - even to the point of laying down our lives for them. and if the least i can do is "clean" out my house and donate items and help hold garbage bags open to put muddy & ruined things into - i will gladly do so.

if you are interested in donating things, either money or household items, my church is acting as a "middle-man". they are collecting things and distributing them as they can and i would love to point you in the right direction if your heart so leads you to do so! if you leave me a comment, i will gladly give you the info you need to make those donations!

and what we said 10 years ago still rings true:

united we stand.