A Time to Remember

September 11 will probably be a day that is marked every year in America forever. But it always makes me think of April 19, 1995. On that day, Timothy McVeigh parked a van in front of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City and walked away. The van exploded, killing 168 people. It damaged bulidings in a 16-block radius. And it happened in my hometown. I was born in Oklahoma City. My parents grew up in a small town  35 miles east of Oklahoma City. I graduated from high school 20 miles south of Oklahoma City. My daughter graduated from college in Oklahoma. My family knew people who perished in that attack. Unlike September 11, the OKC bombing hit my home.

The memorial that was built has a gate on one side marked with the time of 9:01 a.m, the last moment that OKC knew peace. The gate on the other side is marked with the time of 9:03 a.m, the first moment OKC began to heal. I have always liked that symbolism. 9:03 isn't marked as the time we saw the rubble, or the time we wept. It is marked as the time we came together and began the healing process.

That process is not easy and it is not short. I think there are parallels to the work I do know in it. Dealing with clients at the most difficult times gives me the opportunity to help them start to put their lives back together, to overcome, to move forward.

In honor of the day, I intend to take a moment of quiet reflection to be thankful for the opportunity to continue to do work I love and to help people through some of the hardest times of their lives. It is a privilege.