September 11, 2001

Six years ago:
* I had been ordained one year
* I had just left large wealthy resource parish to become solo pastor of small fractious church
* I had been solo pastor for exactly six weeks
* My daughter left early for school (8th grade)
* My husband called me from work to see if I was watching the news (no)
* Our son was just about to get on the bus, literally. So, off he went. Had it been a few minutes later I would have kept him home.
* The schools went on lock-down. The kids knew little or nothing.
* I have a friend who lives in Brooklyn. She emailed saying she was fine, as were all members of her family. Not so for parents of children in her kids school. and, although she lives miles away, paper from the offices in the Twin Towers blew into her back yard. Lots of them...
* I began a phone tree to every member of the parish inviting them to a prayer vigil that night.
* We gathered. We prayed. We celebrated the Eucharist. We wept. We gleamed a bit of hope from being together. My homily that night reflected on the randomness of evil (ie it was not God's punishment) and the hopefulness of God's faithfulness - God always comes into the midst of chaos and seeks to restore life, order, new life, hope....
* It was an auspicious start to a challenging call
* This day changed my life. Forever...

I pray for all those who lost their lives that day. I pray for those who lost loved one's in these senseless actions. I pray for our world and the human tendency to exclusive divisive behavior - the "us against them" mentality.