September 11, 2002

Words escape me.
Sorrow has shrouded my heart for a year now.
Anger has pricked me like thorns lodged deep within in my soul.
I have talked of it here, perhaps too many times.
I have vacillated between wanting vengeance and longing for peace.

I spent a few hours on the phone last night trying to cheer up my friend Leslie, a native Manhattan Jewish woman who lives a few blocks from Ground Zero and was on the streets when the twin towers were hit, and when they fell.
She heard the explosions, smelled it, got it in her eyes and sprained her ankle running from it.
She can't sleep anymore, but she won't take anything to help, she fears she will have to wake up and run for her life some night.
Sometimes the right words escape me.

Here's all I have left on this day:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.

God help us.