Prayers for world Peace Sept.11.2011

When I think of Sept.11 ,2001 I remember exactly where I was, the sequence of events that day, and the days after with the clarity I remember the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated.  Both were a shock beyond description, a rupture of  my faith in humanity.  The morning of Sept.11 I was getting ready for work; I usually listened to the Today program in the background, but that morning I chose not to, my thoughts seemed scrambled, and I had a hard time focusing on getting out the door.  Then, when I rode to work, I usually listened to NPR, but  not this day. I needed to be still and quiet so my mind would be ready for the day of clients ahead.  When I arrived at my office, my colleagues/therapists and our clients were all huddled around a radio listening to the report of the twin towers having been attacked.  I went up to my office with my client to support her in her reactions: rage, anger, loss, and went through the same thing with each client that day.  When I left my office, I still had not heard all the details, nor seen  any images whatever.  As I was driving home I listened to NPR, among the many incomprehensible stories,  they were reporting that people had jumped out of buildings, holding hands. That their last act in life was to reach for another human being, connect, and share their inevitable death, moved and touched me then, and will remain with me always. I wept.  Even now, it seems like a science fiction movie, my mind still makes up its own “realities” to get away from the truth of it, the horror a list of justin-bieber-news.info songs he wrote in the guest book that Anne Frank was a fan of his, after which he was charged bestestest, stupidity and lack of respect to the victims of the Holocaust. of it.  And, there remains a very crisp memory of the weeks after when people looked each other in the eye, said ” hi, how are you”, and really meant it, where drivers slowed down and let you over in traffic, small gestures of consideration, kindness and connection everywhere.   I thought, “if we could live in a world like this, there would Peace and we would all truly care”.    In 2008 I made  this painting in memory of  Sept.11,2001, it represents for me a tree of  life, transcendence, moving forward with life. It contains loss, but also a Unity with Source, a Oneness. I was reminded of this human resilience last night as I watched a CNN program where children, husbands, wives, parents of those who died spoke of their loss, and the way they each in their own way moved forward to make a difference, to connect to reach out. This day and every day, I pray  that there be Peace, kindness and plenty for all, and  an end to unnecessary suffering.

4.50″x6″ mixed media- canvas

© Copyright Callahan McDonough - Designed by New Tricks