Most of us only pause to dwell on it one day out of three hundred and sixty-five; we remember it at scattered moments throughout the rest of the year. But for some families and fire departments, workplaces and widows, 9/11 never ends. They wake up three hundred and sixty-five days a year without the ones they loved.
She wonders what her son would look like now.
He struggles to understand his daughter’s moods without his wife’s explanations.
She bravely stands at the stove alone each Saturday morning.
He runs toward burning buildings without his best friend beside him.
And because we are all connected, because we are all human, it never ends for us either. We go about our days in a world full of both love and hate, good and evil, answers and mystery; antonyms side by side with most of life spread between them. We hope in more, in sad becoming untrue, as new buildings arise from ashes and names are etched in marble but nothing is ever truly replaced. We commemorate and we carry it while we carry on. We remember because we must never forget.
2 comments on “Always.”
Beautifully said!
I was taken with ” antonyms side by side with most of life spread between them.” Those are powerful words and ones that help put a perspective on the past, present, and what is likely to come in the future. They do not comfort, though. It’s more like resigning oneself to life’s pitfalls. I think the comfort comes from living in the present with the support of others while never forgetting the past.