Remembering ...

It's strange, I have to say, to be in a different country when your 'home' country is in a unified celebration, or memorial and you are thousands of miles away ... yet you feel that it is so close, because 'home' still lives in your heart.  Like 4th of July for example--a celebration that recognizes what is at the core of being American... freedom and independence, and also by default celebrates family, friends, summer, taking time to enjoy community and ....hot dogs.  Well okay, not so much the hot dogs....

Today I woke up and found my first thought to be that it was (again) September 11th --- "9/11"  and it felt strange and yes, 'foreign' to be so far away.  This year being the tenth anniversary I think made a lot of people scratch their heads and say--"Really?! Ten years already?!"  I know I did.  And we all think about where we were ten years ago today.

Ten years ago today, I was living in Marin County, CA and had overslept my alarm by choice because I had gotten home the night before around 11pm from a late flight out of Saint Louis to San Francisco.  I had been away for six days; away from French Guy and Oldest Garcon (who was two years old) on a business trip in Saint Louis--and I had worked about 60 hours at a tradeshow for the museum industry and was debating calling into work 'sick' that day to unpack, do a bit of laundry and spend some time with my precious toddler after a six day absence from our home life.  I was just having coffee and about to make that call when we saw the news coverage of the first plane hitting the Trade Center.

Today, here in France, I was able to tune into CNN and watch the live coverage of the commemoration.  Sometimes I can be transported from our little house here in Normandy simply by watching television in English. Confession time--we finally relented to putting a small TV in our bedroom...after a year with only one television in the house, this feels decadent.  But it truly does help to watch French TV to get a handle on the language and wrestling the boys for screen time on the one TV (which also hosts all of the computer video games) in our 'veranda' was pointless.  So I have the option of CNN, BBC or Skye News in English for world 'news'.

This afternoon we took a walk in Deauville, after the day long cloudy skies and sporadic rains showers finally took a break.  Today is the last day of the American Film Festival and the town is decorated with American Flags, which I love.  If you want to feel more American....leave America and then see your home-country flag flying somewhere where you least expect it.  And today on September 11th the flags were not only a familiar comfort of home, but a sacred reminder of a country that is full of strength, pride and far too many tragedies that manage to bring out the very best in people.

I am not related to or I don't know one person personally that was related to any of the 2983 people that died on September 11th, but no matter what our connection is to that day, or where we might be in the world today, we are all impacted by every single decision that was made after, as a result of that day and the way those single few moments in time ten years ago changed a country forever.  One day later, ten years later...the shock of it may have dissipated or the grief tempered by time, but the result...the rippling effect remains.  No matter where you are now, or how you remember it....it stays in our hearts.