SEPTEMBER 10, 2001

Ten years ago today

The sun was brilliant in the sky

The birds sang the song of a beautiful day

The grass was bright green

The world felt safe

I played with my baby and my preschooler

And did things like washing dishes

And reading stories

And taking my husband to school

Ten years ago today

If I had wanted to

I could have taken my husband to the airport

Walked with him to the gate

Kissed him goodbye as he boarded the plane

And stood with my girls at the window

Watching until his plane backed away from the gate

Taxied to the runway

And soared into the sky

Ten years ago today

We worried about the economy

(Though the economists did not)

And the stock market

And the power company raising our rates

Terrorism was something that happened in countries far away

That we only knew from television

Or NPR

Or the BBC

Ten years ago today

There were twin tall towers that scraped the sky of New York

The Pentagon had not been breached

And a crater did not mar a field in Pennsylvania

Mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, and children

Spent time together

Talked on the phone

Did not know this day

Would be their last

Ten years ago today

We thought we were strong

Thought we were great

But we were not united like we should have been

We did not know how strong

How humble

Or brave

Or united

We could become

Ten years ago today

The sun was setting in the sky

The birds sang their evening song

The grass was a deepening green

The world felt safe

And the world did not know--

We did not know--

That we, and the world,

With the coming dawn,

Would change forever.

Scattering Sunshine. . .On Me

It never fails: whenever I'm grumpy, slightly or otherwise, God sends me a reminder/bright spot. I'm sure I miss the significance of some of them when I'm super-grumpy. Thank heavens today I didn't miss it. While shopping slightly-grumpily at Dick's in Bountiful while two of the girls were at ballet, the sweetest older gentleman kept trying to make friends with Rebecca. She is pretty shy around strangers--she usually just puts on her serious face and looks in another direction. I smiled at him, and then continued checking out. He hobbled slowly out to his car, and I sped off another direction to get everybody buckled back in and the groceries unloaded so we could get back to the ballet school in time. As I unloaded the last child from the cart, the sweet man hobbled over and offered to take my cart back to the store for me. "You have enough to keep you busy right now," he said. Bent with age and moving slowly, he took the cart from me with a smile, and I thanked him twice. I was so touched by his desire to be of service and his respect for my calling as a mother. He was a true gentleman, in every sense of the word. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for people like that, and for reminding me to look outside my to-do list for small ways to bring sunshine into someone's life.