Grief and Gratitude Can Share the Same Heart

🌿 Rosemary Thyme Quiet Moments

Grief and Gratitude Can Share the Same Heart

A September 11 Reflection 🇺🇸

September 11, 2001, is one of those days when most of us can remember exactly where we were and what we were doing when we realized something terrible was happening.

I remember the enormous grief I felt as the news unfolded. I thought about the people who had gone to work that morning, the passengers aboard the airplanes, the first responders running toward danger, and all the families whose lives were suddenly and forever changed.

I remember fear, too.

None of us knew what might happen next. We didn’t yet understand the full scope of what had happened or whether more attacks were coming.

But while something extraordinary and frightening was happening beyond our home, inside our kitchen something very ordinary was happening.

My children needed breakfast.

Olivia was only one year old, and Zachary was three. They sat in their high chairs at our kitchen table, and I sat between them as I always did—spoon-feeding Olivia and helping Zachary with his food.

I kept our morning routine.

After breakfast, I got out their toys, and their little day continued. They were much too young to understand what was happening. In the background, I listened to the news and tried to comprehend what was happening to our country.

Looking back after all these years, I realize there was something important in that ordinary routine.

In moments of crisis, we remain constant.

We make breakfast. We care for the people who depend upon us. We keep the familiar rhythms of home going even when the world beyond our doors suddenly feels terribly uncertain.

And that particular morning, there was something else quietly resting in my heart.

Only four months earlier, Olivia had come home from India.

Now she was sitting beside me in her high chair.

She was home. She was safe.

As I listened to stories of families experiencing unimaginable loss, I felt enormous grief for them. I felt fear about what might happen next.

And at the very same time, I felt profound relief and gratitude that my daughter was safely home.

It wasn’t gratitude instead of grief.

It was gratitude in the midst of grief.

Perhaps that is one of the things September 11 still teaches me twenty-five years later.

We cannot control everything happening beyond our doors. We can remain aware. We can prepare wisely. We can pray for our country and for those entrusted with protecting it.

And then we return to what God has placed within our care—the people we love, the home we tend, the meals we prepare, and the ordinary responsibilities of another day.

Sometimes remaining constant is itself an act of faith.

🙏 A Prayer for September 11

Lord, help us to be watchful without being fearful, informed without being consumed, and prepared without losing our peace.

Protect our country and those who guard it. Watch over those who serve in places we may never see and in ways we may never know.

Comfort the families who still carry the losses of September 11. Help us remember those whose lives ended that morning and those who ran toward danger to help others.

When the troubles of the world make us afraid, remind us to do what we can, love those entrusted to us, and place what we cannot control into Your hands.

And even in difficult times, teach us never to overlook the blessings already safely gathered around our own table.

Amen. 🙏

🇺🇸 We remember.

Helene
 Rosemary Thyme 🌿
 Fall In Love With Home Again 💛🏡