No shame...

Without shame, I am going to ask you to put your hands in your pockets. To make a donation to a cause close to my heart. And I do this without shame, because if this walk gets us one step closer to a cure to kidney cancer, it's worth it.

This Sunday I will be joined by my Mum and good friend Denise and will be walking to raise money for Kidney Health Australia. We will be walking in memory of my brother, who died from kidney cancer in December 2008.

Here is the link for our BIG RED WALK page, which includes a tribute and a link to fundraising.

Please donate if you feel you can - every little bit helps, and in the battle against cancer we need all the help we can get.

And as the saying goes, from little things, big things grow...

Must watch TV...

This program has been highly recommended by a friend who has seen it pre release and says it is a supurb, powerful documentary. I expect it to be heart wrenching, traumatic and shocking. I do however believe my friend when she says it is must watch TV for every Australian. 

I imagine it is actually important watching for people all over the world. It's showing on the ABC on Tuesday night at 8:30pm, 3 years to the day that the tragedy unfolded. I plan to be watching.

Today...

Today 

I am 44 years

1 month and 

24 days old.

911

Ten years ago on September 11 2001, our lives were changed at the hands of a select group of people crazed by hatred. It denied the free world of their innocence and it stole thousands of people of their lives and their futures.

One year ago, I stood at ground zero on this morning and paused in silence as NYC stopped to reflect and remember their terrible loss.

This year, on this ten year anniversary, my thoughts are again in NYC.

St Pauls Church, NYC - Hope and Healing at Ground Zero

St. Paul's Church is located between Broadway and Church Street in downtown NYC. It is just across the street from ground zero, and is one of the only buildings in the immediate vicinity to have survived  the devestation unscathed. In the months following the tragedy it became a refuge and sanctuary for thousands of volunteers and service men and women as they worked endlessly in their search for bodies. They went there to pray, to eat and to sleep and continued to do so for nine months after the attacks.

This was also where well wishers and mourners created a makeshift memorial, posting photos of loved ones lost, and messages of love and support were also added onto the fence surrounding the small church. Many of those personal items were saved and are now on display inside the chapel in an exhibit called "Unwavering Spirit: Hope and Healing at Ground Zero."

We didn't go there on Saturday, but decided to visit Monday and I am glad we did. It was a moving tribute to all the victims and the workers alike, with messages and momentos from the months following the Setptember 11 attacks, it was an emotional experience that left me choking back tears and unable to speak. There was very little talking within the church and no-one was meeting anyone else's eyes. It was a very personal insight and yet the feelings seemed connected..

Photography was allowed and I took a few pictures, something I did not feel entirely comfortable with, but I have decided to post a couple of them so that you might see some of what I am talking about. Any of the personal pictures were posted by people for public viewing as a tribute to their loved ones, so I feel ok with sharing them here...

 

This is the graveyard at the back of St Pauls that looks onto the WTC site.

New York City, September 11, 2010...

Saturday September 11, 2010.

Nine years since the terrorist attacks on The World Trade Center Twin Towers and I remember it well, as I am sure you probably do too.

The shock
The emotion
The disbelief
The imagination
The horror

The enormity of the event as it unfolded before our eyes. Visions that will forever be remembered. The horror of it all, and the realisation that lives were being destroyed and families torn apart.

And in its aftermath and the loss of so many people, the overwhelming grief and deep sense of sadness.

Visiting NYC, I was always going to go there. To see the site. To pause. To pay my respects. And to reflect. To be here on the anniversary, I wanted to go to the memorial and to stand alongside strangers in a moment of silence and to listen quietly as the names of victims were read by family members.

It was an odd sensation, to be standing there surrounded by thousands of people, in the city that never sleeps... in a city crowded with buildings and traffic, looking toward a gaping hole where the twin towers previously stood. And although traffic and the noises of the city never totally abated, I imagine it was as quiet as NYC ever gets.

A woman stood nearby holding an American flag and clutching a sign displaying the picture of a loved one lost, others walked by wearing T-shirt memorials. Police and firefighters stood scattered throughout the crowd and in small groups. And all of us remembering those moments nine years ago, as we stood together in the city streets and American flags flew at half mast.

I have included some images of the memorial below. The image at the top of the post* is an evening shot taken from the sunset ferry on the night of the 11th and shows the two beams shining into the heavens from the site of the WTC. (This is a once a year occurance)

This image was taken later in the day from the Statue of Liberty ferry on the way back from Ellis Island. And just to put it all in perspective, the black building to the left of the flag, is HALF the height of the WTC, which stood at 110 floors.

*Sunset photo taken by blogging buddy Patty who spent 4 days with us in NYC. Thanks Patty for sharing your pic. All remaining images are by moi!

Anzac Day 2010

At the going down of the sun,

And in the morning,

We will remember them.

*Photo by Jacinta

Morocco, Anzac Day, 1989.