Remembering 9-11

10 years. Amazing. It seems so long ago, and yet also like it was just yesterday. I was 24. Living at home. Looking for work. Trying to figure out my life. My sister's best friend was living in NYC. She tried calling him all day. She finally heard his voice, and she cried. My mom's good friend was also in NYC. She worked not far from the World Trade Center. She was safe, thank God. My good friend's sister worked near the Pentagon, but again, she was safe. I was lucky that the people in my life were spared the grief and horror of that day. But that doesn't lessen my grief -- it didn't lessen the tears I shed then and the tears I shed today. Ten years have come and gone. We've had wars, and death, and tragedy, and hope, and grace, and love. But without the countless broken hearts from that day, we wouldn't have been able to open them up to new beginnings and the chance for something better.

Battery Park, NYC: The Sphere from the World Trade Center