Living in Peace Now

Eleven years ago I was seven months pregnant. I went to work (just behind the Flatiron Building in Manhattan) early because the number 6 train from the Upper East Side was so crowded later in the morning, I could not get in it. I picked up a small cup of coffee and a sugar-glazed donut from the cart on Fifth Avenue and 22nd Street. The friendly Afghani man who owned the cart knew me and my breakfast preference. He wished me a nice day and I went up into my building. I started to work around 8, but didn’t get much done because soon the phone started ringing. First it was a colleague who saw a plane hit one of the two towers and was too distraught to come into the office. She went home, but I comforted her by saying that I was sure it had been just a terrible accident. I denied anything wrong until another colleague rang to say that a commercial plane hit the second tower. I started to hear words like war, terrorists, fear and death. They were repeated so many times in the following years! I lost my peace of mind and hoped my baby girl would come out and live in peaceful times, hearing just about peace, love and courage. We do live in a peaceful place now here in Australia, and today’s picture certainly illustrates this, but I miss New York with its energy, character and style. Like most people, I do hope war and terrorism will end one day, when it will be no different living anywhere in this world, because it would all be just peaceful.