This article was originally published on September 12, 2011

Today being the tenth anniversary of the events that occurred on September 11th, 2001 brings on a wide range of emotions for people all over the United States, and no doubt in much of the world.  

Like many, I lost some friends and even some distant relations in this tragedy as well as a High School classmate that was a flight attendant on one of the planes involved.  Few in this country were not touched very personally by the almost three thousand deaths resulting from these terrorist acts.  As a result, the past ten years for many have been years of pain, loss, and in many cases an anger that has not diminished.

Many of us have committed ourselves to living lives of presence and enlightenment that cannot be maintained with these emotions and motivations as a constant.  And yet the fact is that the events of September 11th 2011 cannot be denied.

Living in denial of these facts would be just as destructive to the lives we are seeking to lead at any rate, so where does that leave us?

First let me say that I will not tell you that you should not mourn the loss of loved ones, friends or the same of those close to you.  Living a life of presence, consciousness and enlightenment doesn’t mean suppressing natural emotions in such circumstances.

I will ask you to do whatever mourning you need to, and then to allow these people to be a part of that life you seek to lead.

With or without these types of  tragic events, lPeople will come and go from the fabric of our lives.  Yet these lives were taken from us suddenly and with savage violence.  We had no opportunity to prepare ourselves for the loss, and this makes the pain itself almost like a physical wound.

This is not a pain that you could or should try to suppress,  We must all accept the pain and anguish of these losses as real.  To resist this is as futile as it is dangerous to our own wellbeing: Physical, Emotional and Spiritual.

• The loss of these people from our lives is real.
  

• The loss of these people from our lives is tragic.

• The loss of these people from our lives is a fact that we cannot and should not deny.

The acceptance of the loss of these people from my own life and the lives of my friends and family plusthe experience of mourning them as individuals is an important memory for me.  It is also a key part to living the life of presence, consciousness and enlightenment that I seek to live.

How can that be?

Accepting the loss of even those that are the closest to us means experiencing pain.  It means going through some sort of mourning and sometimes if there is someone that bears some direct (or even indirect) responsibility for that loss it can mean dealing with some anger as well.

Any one of these can cause all sorts of emotional paralyses or handicaps that render the individual unable to function with presence and consciousness because they simply cannot process anything else.

This is natural…

We are talking about some very powerful feelings because we are talking about people that are very important to us.  Trying to deny this is, again futile!

I wholeheartedly encourage you to ignore anyone telling you to “Just get over it!” and allow yourself to feel whatever it is that comes to you.  The very act of non-denial of these emotions will prevent the emotions from taking over your life, and therefore your presence and consciousness ongoing.  

People get stuck in emotional cycles that they deny, and not in emotional processes that are allowed to run their natural course.  

As we go through whatever emotional cycle of process is appropriate (for us and nobody else!) we will discover how this loss will fit into our continual presence and consciousness ongoing.  Be sure however, to do the following:

• Cherish the memory of your unique mourning experience for each individual lost:  This is the end of an important phase in your relationship with them.

• Don’t assume your relationship is over:  The life lessons and experiences you shared with them will continue to instruct you, and perhaps with more poignancy than ever before.

• Accept that the loss makes way for more connections in your life, and that this is no reason for any feelings of guilt.  You didn’t ask for this gap to be created, so there is no possibility for appropriate guilt to be assessed.

Now let’s talk about those heroic individuals that lost their lives endeavoring to save the lives of those caught in these attacks.  These amazing people dedicated their lives to protecting and serving their fellow humankind.  Such people are an enormous source of the most powerful and positive energy in all of creation.

And their acts of selfless heroism and service to all of the victims of these cowardly and hateful acts are even more so.  This is really powerful stuff people.  In spite of the horrid nature of what happened, first responders and all of those that rose to this occasion imbued it with enough positive energy to do exponentially more good than the bad done in taking all those thousands of lives.

If you are like some that I know quite well, you may have lost quite a few people in your life that were first responders at ground zero.  Many of the rest of us also feel a connection to and a sadness for the loss of these amazing individuals as a direct result of their being the source of so much that is good and beneficial.  What is involved here is not just amazement and appreciation for their heroic acts, but powerful natural laws of attraction that we need to be in harmony with.  

But remember: First last and foremost, these were people.  Husbands, wives, sons and daughters.  And their loss must first be dealt with in those terms, especially if they were a part of our personal lives.

Considering how their dedication to their calling allowed so many to avoid a premature loss to so many can and should allow us to connect to the energy and essence of these individuals. This therefore increases our presence, consciousness and connectedness to the positive energy that continues to bring us all enlightenment throughout our lives.   

What this can mean cumulatively for all humankind is staggering.

Aside from the serenity, satisfaction and purpose that living a life of presence and consciousness brings, there is a far large issue involved.  The larger the segment of humankind living their lives this way becomes, the more this connection will benefit us.  

The size of this contingent of mankind is not just dependent on the spiritual curiosity that may or may not exist within our population.  We actually manifest that “spiritual curiosity” and in reality spiritual need for connection through the energy that we emanate.  

I would be the last person to try and tell someone that their father, mother, son or daughter was taken from them because “God needed another angel”, but indeed there is more going on here than we are seeing on the surface.

We each must find our own meaning in all of this, but the greatest tragedy that could come from any of this is that it causes us to lose our:

• Presence in the moment:  
• Consciousness of what is happening all around us in that moment.
• The Fulfillment and Enlightenment that comes from living our live thus…

This can still be how we live our lives.  Not just in spite of catastrophic events like those of September 11th, 2001 but sometimes it can be amplified by them.  Just remember:

Experience your loss, as you need to.  Don’t let others define what an “appropriate” level of grief is, and don’t resist the need for this pain and sorrow.

Accept that life has changed, and that it is in no way a betrayal for that change to become a positive part of your life going forward.

Stay Present!

Stay Conscious!

And most of all:

Seek to align yourself with the positive energy that is as much a part of these events as were the hatred and destructive energy were motivators for the perpetrators and architects of these losses from all of our lives.

We all have seen and heard the people that concentrate all of their energy and spend their lives on hatred and spite for the misguided and disconnected “evil-doers” of 9-11.  The energy of all types that radiates out from these events is undeniable.  Each of us will add to that energy by amplifying whichever form of that energy we align ourselves with.

Make no mistake, you must consciously and with present aforethought choose to align yourself with the energy of connectedness and goodwill toward all of humankind.  Otherwise your choice by default is to amplify the hatred, and ill will of the perpetrators through the dysfunctionally endless cycles of pain and sorrow they caused.

And what kind of monument is that for those we have lost…

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