Outside My Window ~ 9.11.2011

Outside my window…is the closing hours on a beautiful Sunday.  It was indeed beautiful.  Blue skies….sunshine…and a high of 86°F….not so different from that Tuesday ten years ago.  The rest of the week will be much of the same, no rain in the forecast. I would actually prefer some cooler temperatures rather than the mid 80’s and it appears as if “wish granted” by the end of the week when temperatures will fall to the mid to low 70’s for a time. I really enjoy this time of year ~ everything is still green and the temperatures are beginning to feel more like fall.  This is also my favorite time of year for sunsets as well.  The cooler days produce less haze and the light is leaning towards perfect.  🙂    It looks like there will be a miss with ‘tropical storm but will probably become hurricane’ Maria as well ~ YES!

I am thinking…about this day ten years ago…my brother-in-law and his family on the one year anniversary of his mom’s passing…my heart was heavy today.

I am glad…the birds have returned to the feeders after I took the summer off.  I stopped for a while during the time I had my tomato plants in the backyard and just recently began to fill them again.  I am also glad to see several hummingbirds flying about the yard for the past several weeks.  They were visiting the flowers I had planted in the garden.  Hurricane Irene basically destroyed them so along with my disappointment over losing the flowers for the rest of the season, I thought that was the last I would see of the birds.  I noticed them earlier this week in my backyard and happily I saw them again today.  I’m pretty sure they won’t be around very much longer but I was surprised to see these around as long as they have been….it is not the norm for my area.  I put up a feeder in hopes that it would encourage them to return next spring.  My parents in South Carolina have put up feeders since they moved into their home and their hummingbird population has increased each summer.  I’m hopeful I may be so lucky.

I am currently working on…wedding photographs taken yesterday in Emerald Isle, North Carolina.  I have downloaded the photographs and currently culling through the images.

I am going to…order a pizza this evening and watch a movie with my youngest.  I’m also going to bed early this evening…a combination of the trip yesterday and the running around in the sun and heat has wiped me out.  Much of today has been relaxing but rest is definitely still needed.  🙂

I am hearing…the dryer tumbling clothes dry…the ticking of my many clocks…Cailin typing on her keyboard…an otherwise quiet house.

Plans for the week include…working from home on Tuesday…editing the wedding photographs taken yesterday…trying out a couple of new recipes for dinner.

One of life’s little pleasures…experiencing and sharing the day with a new bride and groom…the happiness is contagious.  🙂

From my camera…anyone who knows me will know this image really creeps me out…I used a zoom lens to take this photograph because it creeps me out so much I didn’t even want to get that close ~ but I thought it was quite amazing all the same…

And…because today is what it is…I want to share a poem that touched me deeply.  In memory…

From the 104th Floor
A Poem by Leda Rodis

When the plane hit the building
rocked first to the right
then to the left,
and outside all the skyscrapers
of New York
seemed to tremble.

The alarms screamed louder
than we did, and I knew
it was time to get away. It’s funny
what you notice:
a pen rolling across the floor
my screen saver flicker and go off
a picture of you
and me
at Coney Island.

So much to leave behind. And yet so little.

Running down the hall I remembered
my mother
taking me to the top
of the Empire
State Building when I was just
a little girl,
telling me that a plane
had crashed there a long
time ago. So I thought that maybe
that’s
what happened. Just
an accident. And accidents
happen everyday.

Under the blown-out exit sign
a crowd
is screaming,
crying,
pounding
on the door.
I know:
There’s

No
Way
Out.

You have to believe that I tried. I’m not the one
to give up.
Back at my desk, I rescue
the rolling pen,
stare
at the blank screen, and
hold
my picture
of you.
I look out
at the blue morning.
I expect
to see God there.
But what I really see is
another plane.
And I know what it means.
But I don’t know why…

I always thought that life was full of choices.
It always has been.
What to wear
Where to eat
Who to love
(and you know who I chose).

Now my choices have been taken away from me.
The men in the planes have narrowed my choices
down
to
two:
Death by fire, or death by fall.

I see the smoke
rising
filling the room
It’s hard to breathe

I look towards the open window.
What
would falling feel like?

I remember the roller coaster at Coney Island.

The wind tugging at my hair
How good it felt to scream.
The feeling in my stomach.

And how all the way down

I was with you.

About the author of this poem ~ from the Barnes and Noble website:

ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2001, 14-year-old Leda Rodis was in her high school library in Vermont, researching a freshman English assignment, when the announcement came over the loudspeaker: airplanes had been flown into both towers of the World Trade Center in New York. Like people everywhere that day, Leda watched the unreal images on television as the mammoth structures burned, then collapsed, killing thousands. The image that stuck with Leda most was that of two very brave people jumping from the towers, holding hands. Rather than die in the fire the terrorists had created, they chose to jump. And they chose to do it together.
More than any other event in history, images from 9/11 are forever seared onto humanity’s collective consciousness. Every person has tried in some way to come to terms with that day. Leda decided to write a poem. “From the 104th Floor” flowed through her as if a voice had come up out of the rubble. Though it memorializes the events and feelings of that day, “From the 104th Floor” is in the end a love poem. An inspiration. Love is bigger than terror.
Leda’s mother shared the poem with a friend in Brooklyn, Serguei Bassine, a young filmmaker. The poem’s images dug so deeply into him that in the weeks following 9/11 he would stand up and recite it on his subway commute from Brooklyn into Manhattan. Each time he read he saw horror turn to grief and then to hope in the eyes of his rapt listeners. For a long time he wrestled with how to bring the poem’s images to film without violating the integrity of the poem, or the enormity of the experiences of the people who were lost. In the end he made a short film using black-and-white animation as a way of honoring both the writer’s vision and the courage of the people who perished. ~ www.barnesandnoble.com