Explaining 9/11

Yesterday was September 11th. The 11th anniversary. The Phi got ready fast enough to earn a Starbucks run. As she happily sipped her vanilla milk she began to notice all the flags lined up along the street. 3 fire trucks were coming up the road from us and people were waving and honking. The Phi rolled down her window and waved at them. Then she asked me, "Mom is it a holiday today?"

 I will never forget where I was, or what it felt like that morning 11 years ago. To watch the event unfold and the fear, confusion, sadness and anger I felt. And now I am raising 2 girls in the generation who are young enough to not know what happened. Who we will have to explain that day, what happened, what it meant and what came from it.

I stepped lightly. I did not want my child to live with fear. The way I did for months after 9/11.  I gave her a straight forward timeline of what happened in New York that morning. She was very concerned about the person who did this. She wanted to know what happened to them. I was relieved to be able to say that we got him. And then I went into great detail about the way firemen and policemen were so brave and helped. And how the whole country came together to help heal each other. How beautiful it was to see so many flags waving in the air. How after something that was so awful happened that all the people came together to help make things better and how proud that made me feel. That is the part that I want my children to know.