Seeking Authentic Voice

Remember. Today is the anniversary of my first blog post, Sept. 11, 2006. My son, now in college, was a freshman in high school. I reflected on a discussion we had when he came home for lunch with a group of boys.What did they remember of that day five years earlier? Here I am six years later - and so much has changed. In the Eucharist this morning and our prayers for remembering, healing, anointing, we reflected on the many ways all of our lives have been changed by the events of this day eleven years ago. For me, it was the beginning of a decade of financial decline. First the company that had employed my husband for 20 years, folded in the spring of 2002 - an indirect result of 9/11 and people and companies not spending money on computer systems and upgrades. He had remade himself, found a new profession, but as a fifty year old man that took awhile. We no longer live in the same town or state that we lived in when 9/11 happened. The community we now live in is 41% Muslim. W...

As I remember it was an oppressively hot day, with large puffy clouds, a pale blue sky and a steamy white sun. The train ride into Chicago early that morning for make up and hair and nails was filled with the excited laughter of a bride and her bridesmaids. Later that afternoon I walked, with one of my closest friends, to the church, a few blocks away. I think I carried my wedding dress. So many details lost to time and over ridden by other memories of excitement. I do remember dressing in the church and laughing a lot with my friends. We were having so much fun. I wore my mothers dress, a 1950's tea length, strapless lace dress with a lace jacket. What I loved most was the sleeves of the jacket ending in a point with a pearl tip, just past my wrist. It was beautiful. The women were dressed in coral colored dresses and the men in grey tuxes. I carried a bouquet of calla lilies. We had poetry and scripture and prayers and vows. A vow to love, honor, and cherish through sickness and ...