Those Who Respond…

I enter September with a plethora of positive change and personal successes from our main summer months, but rather than sharing those things with you today, I’d like to share a thank you to those who create a life surrounded by and responding to the needs of others.

Twenty years ago, on September 11, 2001 I was sitting in my second grade classroom in an elementary school in Texas. It was still within the first few weeks of the new school year. What I remember is a teacher from another class coming in and telling our teacher to turn on the little television in corner of the room and then us students sat in relative silence, eyes glued to an unplanned broadcast of live news coverage of unfolding events. Parents were called and all students were dismissed early from school.

For a seven-year-old, learning stopped. For those who were older and could comprehend the events, the world stopped.

The exceptions were our firefighters, our police, our doctors and nurses, our military, and our other community members called to serve and protect those around them. In the face of death, in the face of fear, and in the face of the unknown, they willingly drove forward and became a unified force of helping hands.

Today, on the twentieth anniversary of the day after, which shaped many of the formative years of myself and my peers, I give my wholehearted thanks to those who selflessly responded and to those who still choose to respond to the needs of others even in a world of uncertainty.

Thank you and God bless

This has been Gold Talk! Let’s Talk in the next one!