Today marks an anniversary. Today is a day when we remember the horror that happened 10 years ago. Today is a day when we remember the lives lost not only on that day but on the days since. Today is a day when we reflect, when we remember, and when we pray.
Horror takes our breath away, not in the healing sense of nirvana, but in the violent sense of being slugged hard in the gut. We are left gasping, and in that state we are vulnerable to all kinds of fear-based propaganda that leads not to repair but revenge, not to freedom but to fascism.
Spend time this anniversary of 9/11 to just breathe, deeply, freely, calmly. As you breathe in say to yourself “sha”; as you breathe out say “lom.” Shalom is the Hebrew word for peace and wholeness. It is this that terrorism steals from us, and it is this that we need if we are to respond to horror with hope rather than even great horror.
So this 9/11 breathe for all those who can’t, for all those who won’t, and for all those who are too afraid to even try.
The Timothy Blog 