Remember to Love

The other day, I received a text urging me to get out of town this weekend or at least to avoid the subways. "Why?" I thought. Then: Oh. That.

I live in New York City. And you know what today is.

Bearing witness is achy, slow work. The images zap us into sensory overload. But the thing is, it's a daily thing here. I work next to the World Trade Center site, so a few times a day, I walk by it or look down at the construction work. That means a few times a day, I send up a prayer for all the people who were there that day, those who lived and those who did not and all their families. I pray for help in maintaining my game face, all gritty New Yorker, riding the subways every day. What else can I do? Pray, pray, pray....

I took these photos from my office. This tower is going to be lovely, and you can see in the second photo, the water already running into one of the two footprints.

St. Paul's Chapel, which was a safe haven for so many workers after that day, has posted a theme: 'Remember to Love'. People wrote notes on white ribbons that were also printed with that message. That's what I'm doing today. Loving is an antidote to grief and sadness and fear, whatever the circumstances. One mother who lost her son in the Trade Center was quoted in the New York Times as saying, "'How to resist falling in love with death was the question...Depression and despair is one way of falling in love with death. Violence and aggression is another way.'" Cultivating love raises us to the light.

I've gotten some inquiries about how I'm spending the day today. My Andy and I took a walk in Central Park with a cherished friend. I snapped this photo of Sheep's Meadow. The scene was so peaceful and normal and alive. This is New York too. Anne Lamott wrote: "Hard rain makes a mess, but it also fills in space we usually walk through without even noticing. It makes the stuff we can't usually see - air and wind - visible." That's how I feel about September 11th; it throws into relief the simple loveliness of life. It makes me grateful. And I remember to love.

And you?

How did you remember today?