One year ago today those of us who live in the Twin Cities were going about our daily lives with the usual amnesia. We drove to work, took kids to activities, ate a sandwich without tasting while driving at warp speed in our cars, skimmed the newspaper without paying attention to the stories of the lives held in black and white, kissed a loved one without tasting the sweetness of their skin on our lips, said our prayers with little attention or passion.

Sometime between 5:30-7:00 p.m. on August 1st, I was sitting where I am nearly every first Wednesday of every month as our women’s book group meets at church. We were laughing or crying as we discussed whatever book was that month’s selection. Then our receptionist opened the door to the room where we meet to say the bridge over 35W had collapsed and fallen into the river. Stunned, we immediately began making phone calls checking on loved ones, people we knew who might have been traveling that way. All of our senses became heightened, our nerve endings seeming to move to the surface of our skin. I looked at my cellphone to see that our older son had been trying to reach me. Momentarily I froze knowing that he is often with friends who live near the University very near the bridge.  Then the message:"I’m o.k. Don’t worry." A release of breath, a silent prayer of gratitude.

Today will be spent remembering. Remembering scenes just like this one. "Where were you?" will be asked. Where were you when the bridge fell? Countless stories will be told, prayers will be said for those who lost their lives, for those who live forever changed, for those who would be surprised by their own bravery, for those who simply did what they were trained to do. Today will be spent remembering…..remembering what it means to be a fragile, human being, walking in an uncertain world where bridges fail us, illness arrives unwelcomed, accidents change lives forever, and bad things happen to good people. It is the nature of living.

But today will also be spent remembering how people risked their lives to save strangers and children were lifted by the arms of angels out of a school bus dangerously dangling over the rushing waters of the  Mississippi.Someplace in the remembering we will recognize the things that unite us and we will make a silent assent. Those that divide will seem diminished or unimportant. Today, at least for a few moments, we will be awake to the life that we love as we remember how precious it is and how quickly it can all change. Hopefully in that moment, each of us will stop what we are doing, be awakened, and remember to remember  more often….and to give thanks.

"Oh, God, give me grace for this day, Not for a lifetime, nor for the next day, nor for tomorrow, just for this day. Direct and bless everything that I think and speak and do. So that for this one day, just this one day, I have the gift of grace that comes from your presence." ~Marjorie Holmes