September 11

One highlight of September was our trip as a family to the Healing Fields in honor of September 11.  We have done this every year for the past 8 years and are grateful that so many volunteers make this possible each year.  What a beautiful place to go to remember and reflect about September 11.  I consider it one of my responsibilities as a parent to help my children understand the importance of that day.  They need to understand that the power of hate is real, and that if you succumb to hatred only darkness and sorrow will result.  More importantly, they need to know that whenever hate roars its ugly head, the powers of righteousness and love will always make an appearance to combat the horrors of hatred.  Amidst the backdrop of tragedy, the hope of the Gospel shines ever so bright.  Sorrow seems to make our Christian sensibilities more acute, and causes us to cling more powerfully to that which is most important, and see the goodness in others as they do the same.

Below is a new addition to the Healing Fields this year.  This field in Sandy has been the home to the Healing Fields since they began, and this was the first Healing Field in America that inspired dozens others that now occur across the country.  This year they unveiled this new, massive bronze statue honoring the fallen responders of that day.  This is one of the iconic images seared into our memory from that day.

At the fields this year they also had a piece of actual debris from Ground Zero; a piece of steel from one of the Twin Towers.  To touch that steel, twisted by the heat of hatred yet preserved to honor the heroes, was an amazing experience.  I closed my eyes and reflected on the events the occurred around this very piece of steel on September 11, 2001.  It was an amazing experience.

September 11 will always be one of the most important days of my life for the ways it affected me then in becoming the person I am today.  One reason is that I was nearing the end of my mission in Korea and that added a unique perspective to my experiences on September 11.  Not only was I a missionary, preaching a Gospel of love and peace, but I was far away from my home, an American living on the foreign soil of South Korea.  My journals are full of my thoughts from those dark days, but this year, on the 10th anniversary, I have begun to recount my recollections of that week and how they have impacted me and continue to influence me still, 10 years on.  With kids of my own, I want them to understand why I will act the way I do the entire week leading up to September 11.  Why all the documentaries?  Family Home Evening lessons on selflessness, heroes, and miracles?  Why the emotional distance in moments of reflection?  My emotions are certainly close to the surface for many days during that time, and often overflow with tears as I watch the numerous documentaries recounting the stories of survival, sacrifice, miracles, and heroism.  I'm not done with my recollections yet, but will include the first paragraph here:

"As I laid down my head to rest in my small home as a missionary in Seoul, South Korea, on September 11, 2001, the people in the land I call home were just rising to begin their day I was now ending.  Following a day of hard work and joy as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I anticipated another day full of joy in the service of my Lord.  Completely unaware of the horror that was just beginning to unfold half way across the world, I slept that night with a peace….with a contentment….that I would never experience again; with a heart light in its naiveté of the true level of evil that existed in the world.  A heart that would soon be weighed down with a sorrow and comprehension from which it would never again be free.  As Americans awoke to the horrors of evil, I enjoyed my last night in the world as we would never know it again..."