Can it already be ten years?  

It seems as if it were just yesterday.  

The events of 9-11-2001 are so deeply seared into our hearts that time has been suspended.  

When we are called to sing your praise with hearts so filled with pain that we would rather sit and weep or stand up to complain,

remind us, God, you understand the burdens that we bear; 

you, too, have walked the shadowed way and known our deep despair.  

When we are called to sing your praise and cannot find our voice,  

because our losses leave us now no reason to rejoice, 

remind us, God, that you accept our sad laments in prayer; 

you, too, have walked the shadowed way and known our deep despair. 

When we are called to sing your praise and life ahead looks grim,

still give us faith and hope enough to break forth in a hymn, 

a thankful hymn, great God of Love, that you are everywhere; 

you walk the shadowed way with us and keep us in your care.  

                                                                                  - Mary Nelson Keithahn 

On the first anniversary of 9-11 we were in Wells, England.  I had tied three ribbons into a bow of red, white, and blue.  I fastened them to a small safety pin so I could wear it on the lapel of my blazer.  A friend gave me a small crystal teardrop that I fastened onto the bow below the knot.

While we were in Wells, we went into the Cathedral where we saw the U.S. flag displayed as a memorial to D-Day.  On that day, it comforted us to know that the people of Wells so appreciated the U.S. efforts in 1944 that they memorialized it in their Cathedral.