Today went along like a lot of other days. The date registered. It always does and always will. Because of my schedule I was not home to see any of the coverage by the news. and the ceremonies this morning. I even missed the evening news. A rarity. That is probably a blessing. As I drove down the thruway I noted the flags hanging from overpasses and thought back to the September they first appeared. I remember vividly driving my dad to the airport and noting each of the flags as we headed south. An American flag became so much more. So vibrant a symbol of our stubborn tenacity in the face of such evil and destruction. Those flags have remained. Never growing worn or tattered. Never thread bare or faded. I often wonder to myself who tends these flags? is there someone out there that just makes sure they are all okay and hanging just so. A flag tender?
I finished my day in the garden beneath a sky painted in pink and scarlet. A quiet beautiful evening with hints of that azure sky that burned so crisp that autumn morning. A blue etched in my mind and probably will never be unmistakable for any other blue. A 9/11 blue. How such a magnificent color could be so tarnished. But it was. When that first crisp perfect September morning rolls around, and it does every year, I think we each feel a little catch in our throat and we are instantly transported back to a day of lethal planes and falling humans. It is heart wrenching and comes without warning. out of the clear 9/11 blue.

Tonight I watched some shows while breezing through Facebook. My feed filled with each expressing their thoughts about that day and where they were. We are all the same that way. I didn’t connect with it though. I was still in my own world until I came across the picture of the last remaining search and rescue dog. Old and weary. In that moment all the feelings and sorrow attached to that day came tumbling out. I didn’t even sense it before it had me by the throat. The intensity alarming but not really surprising. We can’t ever outrun that day and what it did to each of us. We can not forget it even if we tried. I do not think we ever should. I welcomed that sorrow for I know it is just a small fraction of what so many people today are enduring. Such sadness and loss for so many.