Time as healer

September 11 passed peacefully in Washington DC, thank God. It was a beautiful, sparkling clear day, also a Sunday which is possibly the only day of the week during which a majority of DC's hard-working citizens actually make time to relax.

It was not calm in DC ten years ago on September 12, oh no. The only peace to be found was overhead, since all flights were grounded for a few days. The sky was returned to the birds and the cloud people for awhile. Wow.

We citizens of DC were in shock, bewildered, angry, frightened. This is not like us - we are a city of rational brainiacs. No one knew if they should go to work or stay home, and then only a few days after 9/11 we had to contend with the anthrax attacks which meant we received mail sporadically and even so worried that some trace of anthrax was attached to our LL Bean catalogs and such. On September 12, the Capitol, White House and other federal buildings were closed to the public for the first time. The rug was pulled out from under us. It was a difficult time.

But we are an incredibly resilient species. Like ants or bees, we set out instantly to repair the damage at the Pentagon, clean up the anthrax. We deepened our relationships with friends, neighbors, family. We talked to therapists, received massage, acupuncture and such. We wrote about Septemer 11, we shared our stories with one another. We carried on, got back to life. We did not spend ten years shaking in our boots, as we could have, I guess.

Yesterday I saw a steady calm in the faces of my clients as well as the faces of the much smaller than usual crowd at Eastern Market. Though on the one hand we will never completely recover from 9/11, we have healed significantly in ten years.

Is it true what they say about timing healing all wounds? Time is a powerful component in every experience of healing, definitely, but ALL wounds? Not sure about that.

Salaam, Shalom, Peace.