Utah's Healing Field

September 12, 2011
Yesterday, I couldn't get the images from 10 years ago out of my mind. Everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing as they saw and heard the horrific events that will forever be etched in our country's minds. I longed for something to calm my troubled mind and heart. Something to give me that connection I felt 10 years ago, something to heal the unimaginable, unreal suffering that my mind could only try to comprehend.

I asked Jeff to take us to the Utah Healing Field 9/11 Memorial. I knew we were pushing our luck with the fading light and dark clouds but I had to go, even if just for a moment. It was the first memorial of its kind in the country after the 9/11 attacks. Spanning an enormous lawn, there was one flag for every single victim in the Twin Towers, American Airlines flight 93, American Airlines flight 77, the Pentagon, United Airlines flight 175 and United Airlines flight 11.

Breathtaking. Unimaginable. Humbling.

But the winds and rain suddenly burst open minutes after we got there. I only got a couple of pictures before we ran back to the car. So tonight, we went back to the site. I felt this longing to go there. Almost like a need for closure after seeing the images and videos, hearing the recordings from the planes and victims all over again... some only now released publicly. We walked up and down the rows and rows of flags. We read the name tags attached to each flag and stood in utter disbelief as the victims suddenly became real. We walked to the "Hope Rising - To Lift a Nation" bronze monument, depicting the three firemen who raised the American flag at Ground Zero soon after the attacks. I touched a piece of steel from the World Trade Center towers. We tried to explain to Pearl why we were there, how special this was but words just wouldn't come.

May we never forget and may God bless America.