Health & Fitness
Before
Today is September 10th, the day before September 11th. Tomorrow is a day to pause and remember the blue skies that fell silent, The Twin Towers that fell into the earth and The America who fell to her knees at the hands of terrorists 12 years ago. Tomorrow makes today a wishful thought.
September 10th is the day before my cousin walked, covered in ash to his parent’s home dazed and in shock and it’s the last day he worked on the 92nd floor of Tower 2. It’s the day before Steve, a NYC retired Rescue 1 Chief and a man I loved dearly began changing into a sad man. A man who died a few years later with a hundred or so Mass cards of the firefighters he lost, cupped in his cold stiff hands. It is 2 days before we became the country who lives in the Post 9/11 era.
Every day is September 10th for someone. The day before everything changes, a delineation between when things were one-way and became another. Today is the day before someone receives a diagnosis, a life changing phone call or suffers a loss. Today is a last day of normal and tomorrow will have someone wishing for yesterday.
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Before, implies that there is an after. For those left to face the painful events of September 11th, after wasn’t and isn’t easy. Funerals, memorials and for some the realization that their loved ones could not be recovered went on for months and even years. The events of 9/11 have forever shaped the lives of many. Children growing up without parents, parents growing old minus children, firefighters battling blazes without their brothers, siblings learning to live without built in playmates, maids of honor or best men, and survivors surviving without peace.
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As the rain falls this morning and the sky sits grey it’s easy to feel less than enthusiastic but today may be your before. Tomorrow may not come and if it does, it may not be what you expected. Enjoy today, this moment, your good fortune, health and the people you love.
Today, take a moment to recognize it could be your day before and tomorrow may bring something you never saw coming.
