Friday, September 11, 2015

September 11th, Falling Autumn Leaves & Tears

It's a lovely September 11, 2015 day here in the eastern part of the USA. The weather reminds me an awful lot of the weather on another September day, yes September 11, 2001.

Last evening I watched an entertainment event that concluded with red and yellow autumn leaves falling from the ceiling. I cried. No one was aware of it and it surprised even me, but it was a really sacred moment. 

You see as the performers did aerial acrobatics they were dressed in costumes that made them look like falling leaves on a September day. As the acrobats did their thing, singers sung beneath them as actual (artificial but real-looking) autumn maple leaves fell from above. 

Maybe it was the song that got me? It was Green Day's "Wake Me Up When September Ends." Or maybe the fact that I know from my days of hospital chaplain training in Bible College that if you see an image of a red or yellow maple leaf on a hospital door it is symbolic of loss, yes death has come. 

So, with all of those symbolic autumn maple leaves falling to the ground and the song playing and knowing September 11th memories are here once again, I cried. 

There were other more personal reasons for my tears, I am sure, but today, September 11th, is a day to remember life's losses -- the losses of others and even our own. Tomorrow, we will refocus on the present and the future, but shedding tears, today, is okay. And shedding tears for me is one-in-the-same with deep praying.  

Here's the song:

Give away your life... To The Only One Who has the Words of Life, Jesus.

Grateful 

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