I live in New York City. I lived in Manhattan on September 11, 2001. The feeling of shock and otherworldliness filled the streets. We all walked around silent, looking one another in the eyes for answers. None of course. The unthinkable, the impossible had happened. We passed MISSING signs, we check on friends who worked in the towers, we stood on Houston St with the military vehicles, then days later on Canal closer to the tower's remains, wanting to DO something... but like the hospital ERs - prepped and aching to help there was little to nothing to be done. It was over. That is all.

After Will died and after Tiger died there is was again- that familiar emptiness ..... the depth of knowledge of the unknowable spreading before you. The loss of something so great you would never wrap your brain or your heart around it. But the eyes to link with around me? The communal understand that put no demands on the bereaved, that knew exactly what had been lost and didn't fumble with words, or Pollianna the hell out of loss, the beautiful silence that sang so loudly in unison?.... that was missing. Lucky for everyone else that was missing. Related but so very different.

And then there was the beauty that spring from the devastation of 9/11. On the streets, in email boxes, in newly formed non-for-profits, in expression and art. Loving kindness. And while different too, that was also related. Those that were silent with me, that helped me to plant Will's tree and spread his ashes, those that danced for me and Tiger in the hospital and cared for my daughter, glow, the pregnancy loss support group, many of your blogs. That is not to be forgotten either.

Anger and endings and even ugliness sadly also have their say around 9/11. Maybe in some ways for our own tragedies too. But today the tragedies can be linked, the beauty and love remembered: in honor of ALL who we have loved and lost. There is at least nothing to lose in that. The emotion, the shared space, the loss of dreams.

light

Sooze you are so right, even in the emptyness and the grief there is "light" -- the people and things that shock and amaze you and lift your heart from that sunken place. It does take my breath away.