"Have courage for whatever comes." Mother Teresa
On September 10, 2001 it was my birthday which was spent completely alone and in mostly silence. I had tremendous feelings of isolation and decided to go out for a walk. I actually enjoyed my long walk in the neighborhood where I lived at the time.
BUT, in spite of this, I still had a very strange and quiet feeling of isolation from the rest of my surroundings. I did not have feelings of sadness, nor loneliness. Just feelings of extreme silence, the kinds of internal feelings or darkness and complete quiet that I would sometimes experience as a small boy in Virginia just before a major Tornado or furious Storm! That night I went to bed and went to sleep without a problem and experienced no OBEs!
The following morning, September 11, 2001 I woke up, the radio was already on as usual, because I slept with it on at night, most nights. That morning I woke up hearing announcements on the radio about a plane crashing very close to my gallery at The South Street Seaport! They said the plane had hit one of THE TWIN TOWERS! I sat up and turned on the television. Just as I did....I saw what I thought to be a re-cap of this event. BUT........It was LIVE! A plane was crashing into the second tower at The World Trade Center!
So quickly, the odors of fumes/smoke began to enter into my opened bedroom windows. This I knew for sure was NOT an OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE! This was physical reality happening within my realm of physical existence. Human beings were attempting and were being successful at destroying fellow human beings! The difference this time was, IT WAS HAPPENING WITHIN WALKING DISTANCE FROM WHERE I LIVED!
As we all know by now, Lower Manhattan was devastated for months and years to come as far as Merchants such as myself who owned and ran any kinds of businesses. I was beginning to assume that my gallery would be soon only a distant memory, due to lack of business. (Most of us were already having various problems due to poor management and corporate greed of staying in business.) My getting back into the thick of things going on in the area was a sad and dismal experience at first.
I watched as I walked to work from day to day, the businesses outside of the mall dissipate quickly. So many businesses became a distant memory with time.
And what was even worst, was the HUMAN BEINGS that had become only a memory that had perished in this monstrous act of destruction by other HUMAN BEINGS that had so little compassion for others!
In the beginning, most of us were in a daze on a daily basis. Most of our time was not spent with selling our products to customers, but rather, attempting to be supportive of the hundreds of Police Officers, Military Officers, etc. that we would either pass coming to our places of business or greeting them as they stopped by from day to day to just introduce themselves to us and let us know they were protecting us from harm's way! (LOVE AND LIGHT TO ALL OF THOSE MEN AND WOMEN THAT I MET DURING THAT TIME!)
Walking to work, or taking the trains to work, either way was a long haul, due to the fact that there were always various detours that would arise on a day to day basis. I always attempted not to look in the direction, when coming out of the subway, of fallen rubble of THE TWIN TOWERS. It was heartbreaking to say the least. The odors of decaying bodies permeated the subway stations and smoke and fumes seemed to last an eternity. Both at work and at home.
Sales to stay in business and to pay bills were becoming almost nil. It seemed only a question of time before what these monsters had done to many of my neighbors and my friends, who no longer were alive to come home, (seeing their pictures hanging all around me in the area was sad. Especially that so many of them were in their 20's and 30's.....) I remember that so many of these people had made the neighborhood so festive during the holiday seasons, especially Christmas. Instead, the following holiday seasons around the neighborhood were THE DARKEST ONES EVER IMAGINE in a country accustomed to so much freedom!
As I mentioned, many of us were convinced that it was only a question of time that we would all go out of business, and some did....... BUT, for me something unexpected happened before having to close. I was surrounded by those telling me they were going to go under and that we were all doomed!
What happened next to myself and my gallery I saw as something Metaphysical. Something that The Universe had arranged beyond my human capabilities to comprehend at first............
More later............
LOVE AND LIGHT!
Marshall
No comments:
Post a Comment