All God's Children Wept

Sixteen years, and each year we ask others where were you when it happened. I won't write to act as if I know what it felt like to be in the midst of it, what it must have felt like to have committed your life to serve and protect and have to arrive at the places it happened, what it must have felt like to get that call or the visit; or to have to wait. It happened and for many of you reading this it happened to others, but it also woke us up to just how connected we really are in this world. How anger begets anger, hatred begets hatred; where the struggles for peace seem to be unending in so many places. While we think it happens to others, in a way it happens to each of us as well because it shows us a side of man that can reveal itself at anytime; but does it have to?

I remember where I was that day; in a small Catholic school. I remember having to keep it "normal" while people made calls to see if parents were safe. Keeping things calm and moving as usual as to not alarm or scare the children. I remember walking across the parking lot into the church as a school community and just praying for peace, as the children saw it. All kneeling down in their uniforms, not alarmed in the least because this is what we do, we take time in our day to pray; not knowing that the world had changed since they walked into school that day.

All these years later, the children in front of me today, weren't born of this world yet. I won't teach the lesson because they are all different in their life experiences, and with respect to their parents, these are the things for them to decide for their children while they are this young age. So what will I do today? I will take that walk across that same parking lot, I will light a candle, and I will pray for peace. I'll also remember all those who lost their lives that day, and the first responders, and others who experienced the day first hand, and of course the families and friends, who each year, relive where they were that day.

Those young children in front of me? With them, I will pray for peace. We will continue learning about respect and compassion and kindness. We can't change the past, we can't change others, but we can change ourselves; in doing so maybe we can help inspire change in others; at least we can work at making a difference and join the many who have, and continue to, as they have for each day in the years gone by since that Tuesday in September.

Peace be with us!