On this 9/11, I still find my heart so heavy, and my words so few. As many have said, "How do you describe what happened?" Yet, grief and loss are not limited to what happened on that day. We send our strong ones to war, and some never return. Illness and accidents claim those we love and those we do not know, many times, each day, each hour.
I was particularly impressed with words said today by Tom Ridge, former Pennsylvania Governor and first Secretary of Homeland Security. He quoted a poem by Isla Paschal Richardson, which begins this way:
If I should ever leave you whom I love
To go along the Silent Way, grieve not,
Nor speak of me with tears, but laugh and talk
Of me as if I were beside you there.
Near the end, the poem says, "There are so many things I wanted still to do . . ."
This is the line that really touched my heart, for I have witnessed similar words from those I loved before they went away. My daughter, whose busy life was interrupted at only 34 years of age, told me, "You'll have to finish it for me, Mom."
My heart gets examined once again, my deeds reviewed. Grieving is necessary for a time, but grieving and recalling memories are not enough to honor them.
When some have gone, seemingly before their time, who will do the work they left unfinished? Am I doing my part? Am I fulfilling my mission, my purpose? Will you, too, examine your life?
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