My mother has two spleens...

Here I go about September again, but this time more specifically September 2001. The 11th of that September taught me that a random Tuesday can be the day that changes your life forever. The 28th taught me that life must go forward. That happiness and the ability to look forward can return, if even for an instant with the passage of time. I have had to relearn those lessons since 2010. The difference was that in 2001 the lesson was global whereas in 2010 it was personal. There it is again, irony, like a giant cartoon 2x4 to the head. Tomorrow is September 11th, never again to be a random Tuesday or any other random day of the week. I suspect the phone will ring as it did in 2001 and most 9/11's since with that familiar voice on the other end...I suspect there will be white puffy clouds and a hint of chill in the air (ok so the forecast is for 95 and humid but you get my point) ...yet as familiar as these things will seem the day will be anything but random. It will be the day that forever changed life as we know it. It will be the day that brought us a mere 17 days later, to make the toast that will be forever etched in my mind...In loving memory of those we lost..in grateful tribute to those that serve...we will raise our glasses and celebrate life tonite... Those words rang true in 2001 and serve now to remind me to recall not only what we lost, 411 souls who perished running in to the towers, and 2585 more who perished trying to escape the towers, the Pentagon and a plane in PA and a sense of security and innocence we should never fully regain. But now thanks to the passing years it is the last line that seems the most important . Celebrate and appreciate what we have. The passage of time and change are inevitable but only they can truly dull the pain of our losses, dry our tears and eventually allow us to look forward instead of back.