We Remember...

A flag is flying out on our yard today. And as I sleepily roused from bed and was changing someone's diaper this morning, I looked out and saw it and it all came back.

Ten years ago.

I was teaching early morning aerobics and after the class ended I jumped into my little black jeep feeling like a million bucks and was off to our teeny, tiny basement apartment to rouse my Prince Charming. The radio was on and I cranked it to prolong my "post-exercise-high" and all that could be found was chatter... breaking news about towers and planes and unknown this and that. From what I could cobble together, something horrific had happened in NYC and with a newfound sheen of nervous sweat on my brow, I knew I needed to get home and to know more.

I parked the car and ran inside to wake RyGar who came out of his blissful slumber to our hand-me-down couch and as we watched The Today Show in horror together, we mumbled lame statements like, "This is bad", and "Holy Cow", and "I can't believe it."

And then the phones rang and our fast fingers dialed and the unyielding need to reach out to everyone we loved became a frantic mission as if we could in some way connect with our loved ones and erase the terror that had taken place on U.S. soil.

I remember that come evening I had had enough. Work was a vague haze that we all suffered through that day because it really seemed fitting that we stop and immediately memorialize. I had cried and felt vulnerable and I was away from my parents and it seemed that the world was fighting against the young, innocent "can do" ways of a just married couple. I felt naive, and numb and I really thought that just maybe this was the beginning of the end.

And then the lasting images began to unfold everywhere, of heroic acts of love and patriotism. I have never ever felt more proud of being an American and my heart felt it was about to burst as report after report of fearless friends and neighbors and everyday people eventually replaced the sirens, the smoke and the talk of countries I was unfamiliar with and political regimes I had never heard of.

And so, in short, we remember that day. We remember striking details that memories have a way of pushing into the background. We remember and feel the burning need to teach our little men about what happened ten-years ago. So they too will see the flying flag in our yard and feel proud and assured and compassionate toward their fellow Americans not just today, but every day.