[Fish_Eye]

It's hard to believe that five years have already passed since those cowards took all those innocent lives.

Our world is now a different place and we owe so much to the brave men and women who serve to protect our freedom and way of life.

Soon after the tragedy of 9/11 I found myself on the shoreline seeking some sense of peace in a world that had seemingly gone mad. I was with a friend and I had just commented on how eerily quiet it was; no planes overhead, no sounds of traffic, and then a siren went off. Any other day, it would have blended into the sounds of day-to-day living; on September 12th it was cause for a whole lot of concern. We both looked at each other with eyes wide open wondering what had happened now. I think that’s when I realized there would never be any going back to life as it existed two days earlier.

Since 9-11 I’m sure many of you have stories of how you’ve been inconvenienced at airports and by other security measures. I was on a plane that was redirected into making an emergency landing for security reasons. That message was delivered by the captain of the plane and you could tell from his nervous tone that this was no routine situation. His voice cracked as he described the fact that we would see ambulances, fire trucks and rescue workers on the secluded runway that we would be landing on and that the FBI and Airport Security would be boarding the plane with bomb sniffing dogs once on the ground. Needless to say a lot goes through your mind, especially after 9-11, when you find yourself in this kind of situation. Are all planes being grounded? Have there been another number of planes hijacked? It turns out a very suspicious piece of luggage had made it onto the plane and they didn’t want to take any chances. We had to wait in buses for over two hours in the cold, to find out that there was no threat.

A couple of days after the towers fell I posted this picture with the message: I hope you can find solace in the surf. The ocean has always been my altar and a place where I feel close to God. Let’s hope the family members of the victims have found some sense of peace after their terrible loss.