Reflecting on 9/11

As I sit at my desk working today, I can’t help but feel very aware of the date. 9/11. I am not one who likes to dwell on the past. I guess sometimes I do dwell. I guess we all do a bit once in a while. But generally, I like to move on and go forward. Somehow on this day of the year, every year, I tend to look back just a bit and dwell perhaps just a bit more. It will never be just another day.

If you were in NYC, you really will never forget. I think this city will never forget. I know it might sound strange but I have noticed every morning on this day every year, the wind is very eerie in the city. Have any fellow New Yorkers noticed that? It seems to swirl around a bit more than usual, hovering low on the ground. One year, it seemed to howl. Really howl. The wind thing happened again this morning. It was cloudy and there was this cool, chilly breeze that swirled and whipped all around making the paper in the streets do a sort of dance. Then somehow around midday that wind ceased. I swear this wind thing happens every year on this day.

Then there are all the sirens that I hear downtown. Likely just escorting officials after the ceremony held to commemorate today but they are a bleak reminder of the ceaseless sirens we heard here on 9/11. Every other day, I don’t notice the sirens or the wind. Today I do.

Then as I walked home to work on this post, I passed by this mural that seems to have sprung up out of nowhere. A woman dancing larger than life on the side of a building in downtown Manhattan. I smiled a really big smile. How awesome! There once was a parking lot here and now there is this amazing, spirited hand painted art on the wall. I guess that means the lot will eventually turn into a hi-rise condo but in the meantime, I am going to enjoy it.

This mural feels like a reminder of why I love this city so very much. It is why I keep returning here to live. NYC has so much energy. It makes you want to dance like this dancer, and maybe like that wind. This city always surprises you, carries you, lifts you up. It doesn’t stop changing or growing or reminding you that you are here. The energy of the people, the spirit of this amazing city on this day 14 years ago and the spirit that will never go away. I love NYC. I truly love this city. I really, really do.