Where Were You?

Where were you on that fateful morning 7 years ago today? Like most people, September 11th is a day etched in my brain forever. I remember exactly where I was. I was working a law office in a nearby town and one of the lawyers turned up the radio that was piped throughout the office. As I sat there listening, I started to cry. My first thought was of all those people who died. My second thought was of all those who lost family members and loved ones. My third thought was "I want to go home have Jay and the kids right there with me". I was shaking most of the morning and over my lunch hour I talked to Jay on the phone the entire time.

When I got home from work, I was glued to the tv. We talked to the kids about what was happening and found the girls knew about it already because they discussed it at school. Austin however only had heard that planes had killed some people, so he was afraid that a plane would come kill us too. He wanted to know why this happened. How do you try to make sense of something to an 8 year old, when you can't even make sense of it yourself?

I remember that we took our American flag and hung it out, and I had 2 of those car flags that I put on our vehicles too. I also remember the radio stations playing Lee Greenwoods "I'm Proud To Be An American" over and over, and how each time it played it would bring a tear to my eye.



Another thing that sticks out vividly in my mind is something that happened the very next day. After Austin was done with school, I took him with me to make a quick run to Wal-Mart. When we were finished we walked out and there stood a man of middle eastern descent and he was wearing a turban. I am sure he was a nice man who was just as upset about what had happened the day before as I was. But my instant, gut reaction was that I reached over and pulled Austin close to me. The man happened to turn our direction just as I did this and he saw what I did. I was sorry for being afraid of him, but at the same time I couldn't help myself. I WAS afraid. As time has gone on, I have prayed that God would someone let this man know how sorry I was for my reaction.

Where were you that morning?