We decided to spend this weekend at the cottage. We were enjoying our supper on the deck last night and savouring the last rays of sunlight, when we noticed an unusual cloud formation on the waterline. As the sun sank under the horizon, an amazing city scape seemed to appear.
We had never seen such an unusual configuration of clouds. It seemed exceptionally uncanny that on the eve of September 11, that what seemed like two glowing towers would appear on the horizon.
Was Mother Nature herself mourning and paying tribute to the tragic events of ten years ago?
We decided to mark the day, today, by watching a beautiful film called "Beyond Belief." It chronicles the journey of two widows, Patti Quigley and Susan Retik, both who were pregnant when their husbands were killed in New York on 9/11. That experience led both of them to learn more about the plight of widows in Afghanistan. They didn't know that between 300,000 to 500,000 Afghani women were widows in a country where constant war, destruction, violence, and poverty have become a norm in everyday life. They felt compassion for these women and their families and raised money to help them become more independent and self-sufficient and actually went to Afghanistan to meet some of the women and children who had also been tragically affected by the violence of war.
We were both touched by the courage and compassion of these two women. What was so eloquently shown in this film is that each one of us has the power of choice. Do we react to what happens to us in life with anger and revenge or love and compassion?
There are so many people in the world who have lost loved ones and have been traumatized by violence, revenge, anger, and war. As history is shown, nothing is ever solved by violence.
May the tears and sadness of the children who have lost fathers and mothers, parents who have lost their children, and husbands and wives who have lost their partners in all countries and parts of the world inspire us to remember our common humanity and to choose compassion and co-operation over violence.
