sarah in nyc

 This morning I got a sweet email from my sister recalling how we spent the first anniversary of 9/11 together at Wave Hill, a beautiful garden in the Bronx overlooking the Hudson. She wrote the email noting that she was writing the exact moment that the first of the World Trade Center buildings was struck. I have found myself this year trying to pull away from my memories of that day. It has been a week of death. A friend from my community died. She was a joyful brilliant presence who had become like a sister to many people I hold dear.   Friday was the unveiling for my dearest friend Shawna. It was a morning of large emotions expressed quietly.  My father's Yahrzeit began Friday evening. Sunday my sons and I attended the memorial service for their beloved fifth grade teacher. My daughter had wanted to attend but she woke up with a bad cold.  Kathie Khalifa taught each of my kids. She was the sort of teacher that each child deserves to have at least once in the...

 This morning at 8:46 we were packing up the cabin we have been renting this summer. Unlike that other September 11, of the hard bright blue sky like a big beautiful bowl over our world,  today the sky was complicated. As we drove back towards the city, parts of the sky were bright blue and other corners of the sky were black with rain clouds. We didn't listen to the names of the dead being read today. We approached the George Washington Bridge. There was the big flag adorning the bridge. I thought about all of the Port Authority workers who had died doing their jobs that day. As we drove along the West Side Highway I remembered how my sister was stuck in traffic that day as the disaster was taking place. I remembered my friend who was driving further downtown that day, late for his meeting on the top floor of the World Trade Center. At first he was in a panic because he was so late for the meeting. And then he saw the place where he was supposed to be,  and the people he...