The New Normal

I meant to do a post on the 10th anniversary of 9-11-01, but I didn't.  I mean to do a lot of things that I don't.  Sometimes I wish I was more type A with a check list that I had to get done each day.  I meant to practice my photography after paying for a photography class, but I still haven't.  In fact, I have returned to shooting in automatic.  I know, I know, but soccer shots are hard to get, anyway, without worrying about my aperture setting!  I finally decided that I just had to sit down, though and take a minute and write this post.
At the beginning of school Samuel had to write an introduction piece about himself and one of the things he could write about was an important event in their lives.  I thought about it for a minute and then realized something that none of them realize!  September 11, 2001 changed all of our lives more than any event in my childrens' lifetime.  They can't remember how it was when you didn't have to take your shoes off to get on an airplane, or not being able to go right up to the gate to welcome your party right off the airplane.  They don't remember how you used to just go to a museum without having everything go through a metal detector, or before Homeland Security.   They really don't even remember what it was like before we were at war- all those years of peace (all be it tense peace with the Soviet Union.)  Soviet Union- what's that?  Right- they don't know about that either!
September 11, 2001 my husband was still a full-time Seminary teacher.  He was in class when it happened.  I was in my kitchen and had turned on the news.  When the first building collapsed, Tom Browkaw was saying "I'm not sure what just happened" and I was yelling back, "the tower just completely collapsed Tom Browkaw!"  At the time we lived in Colorado, far away from the events of the day.  It was like a very intense movie I was watching.  I called my husband who said that someone had come in and told them about the attacks and that they were watching it now.
When I went to work the next day, the nurses were talking about going to help.  One had already contacted some of the hospitals to see what they needed and was arranging her flight.  I wanted to go, but I had little ones.  By the next day, it was obvious that there would be no need for extra nurses and doctors, though, so nobody went. 

Robert had already turned in his packet to rejoin the Army, but it was all so close that it's inseparably linked.  The other thing the kids really can't remember is when their Dad didn't wear a uniform, when we weren't planning our life around moves, when they weren't saying, every time they saw a picture of a house on the computer, "is that our next house?"
Things in our own lives are very different then when those planes hit.  Most of the time I just go on with regular life not thinking about it.  It has become the new normal.  We have deployed soldiers spouses over for dinner, we get excited for our "next" home, I send my husband off for work in a uniform every morning, we don't even think twice about not going to the gate to pick Grandma up.  I don't even really remember 10 years ago when my husband went to work in a suit and tie and when I wasn't thinking about the "next place".  It's amazing how much things can change in just a short time and then become so "normal" to us.  At the very least, I realized I had to stop and comment on this new normal.
I was really glad on Sunday when we sang, "My Country 'tis of Thee."  It gave me a minute to pause and reflect and realize how many people's lives have change forever because of that day- many many of which lost their lives.  I have to give a shout out to my hero's, especially,  just doing their jobs- EMS workers (had to put them first, because they are usually forgotten or just lumped in with the firefighters!), Firefighter, police, and soldiers.  Thank you for all you do!