The best way to honor those lost on 9/11 is to be the people we were on 9/12.
I’ve heard this before and it’s so true.
After the attacks on the twin towers, we were all kinder, gentler, and more helpful to one another.
On 9/11 we were stuck overseas, and people went out of their way to help any and all Americans. Our hotel kept us on at a reduced rate, people stopped us in the street, and the American Embassy had a bank of flowers four feet deep all around it.
The feeling then was one of coming together as a community and supporting one another. Gaining strength that we all needed to move forward.
We see that today as the fires rage across the state. Residents are feeding firefighters. People are offering the homes, their corrals, their RVs to those displaced.
I got five calls this morning after the earthquake because I’m literally five miles northwest of Malibu. People reached out to see if I was okay, if there was damage, if I needed help.
All wonderful, but we don’t have to wait for a disaster to act this way, to have this feeling, to reach out.
Our papers are full of local nonprofits doing good every day – feeding the hungry, clothing schoolchildren, rescuing animals, helping teens.
Let’s not wait until disaster strikes and we need to come together. Let’s work in tandem now to make our community a better place.
Volunteer at one of the local charities. Help out one day at the food pantry. Donate to a respectable nonprofit.
Not a joiner? Make a phone call to a single friend to say hi. Send a card to a senior. Tell a stranger you pass, “I love your outfit!” For God’s sake, let someone over on the freeway (my biggest beef – people speed up instead…). Get to know your neighbors.
My priest’s sermon last Sunday was about how we come to pray and love one another at church, and then after the service honk at someone in the parking lot!
So try to practice small acts of kindness everyday.
None of us are Bill Gates or Warren Buffett. Very few of us have millions to donate. But we can send 10 bucks to a charity we believe in. Donate a can of food on the way out of the market. Clean out a closet and donate the kids’ old coats.
Share a meal, share a smile, share a ride.
It’s doesn’t take much to make a big impact. You’ll never know how your small gesture could influence a life, a group, a cause.
So today on September 12, remember to honor those lost on 9/11-in any real way that you can.–
