This beautiful September morning in NY, is ever reminiscent of the other horrible one so many of us lived through fourteen years ago. That day was just as beautiful.  The air just as crisp. And I watched from my window on the 40th floor as a plane flew into the second tower downtown. And I watched one tower then another disintegrate into a cloud of smoke and ashes. It was the first and only time, in my life, that my knees buckled. My sister, my husband, countless friends all worked within blocks of those twin towers. At any given time, we all ate lunch in their shadow or shopped in the mall beneath them. Mark, my husband, had had a orientation event at the restaurant 'Windows on the World' on the 106th floor of the North tower just the week before. Our lives were inexplicably intertwined with those buildings and when they fell, we all lost a part of us that was innocent and good.

So today, I will pause to say thank you to all the heros who rush into burning buildings while the rest of us rush out. I will pause to kiss my children, my husband, my family and hold them tight for a few seconds. And I will pause to remember....as if I could ever forget.

Where were you that day?