I know what day this is. I remember the moment it became that day, that it became those numbers that will be ever associated with those events. I remember the instant. I remember where I was standing. I remember the people I was with. I still recall snatches of conversations. I can’t forget the moments after, the days after, the weeks after. I recall that unspoken but pervasive need to connect with those that I loved. I can call all that up with no effort.
But that is not what I am going to remember today. I am going to remember before. The moments and hours before. Before fear became color coded. Before that day became that day. Before.
That morning was brilliant and beautiful and everything about a September day that makes me fall in love with September every time she comes around. The sky was a perfect sheet of blue. No clouds, a wide expanse of almost-autumn perfection. The air was the cool kind that makes you want to draw it deep into your lungs. The kind that makes you grateful for mornings like that, for the sheer pleasure of being alive.
It was the cusp of the season’s change, when the temp is a cool reminder that summer is nearly ended and fall is on its way. Those kinds of days that feel full of hope and possibility. Today feels like those moments that came before. And that is what I am going to remember today.
