On 9/11, I like to take time to remember the people who left their loved ones in a flash. Those who thought they were going to just another mundane day at the office. Those who fearlessly rushed into burning buildings to save lives. Those who boarded planes that morning expecting to simply have a cup of coffee and quietly read the newspaper. Those who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I heard that phone calls flooded the networks as people trapped in the Twin Towers realized with mounting fear that these were their final moments. Their last thoughts were to reach out to their loved ones – to hear gentle voices one last time. How terrifying that must have been to know they weren’t getting out. There was no escape. They were going to die.

Some flung themselves from the windows, a hundred stories up, preferring a moment of flight, of some sort of freedom before falling falling falling to their deaths. Perhaps they hoped that God might snatch them up before they hit the ground, and who are we to say that He didn’t? Maybe their bodies fell, but their souls soared? I like to think that’s what happened, because the alternative is so horrifying.

Most never got to say goodbye to their families. Probably never got to say, “I love you” to those they adored. The end is so final, isn’t it? We have no wiggle room to right any wrongs before disappearing into the beyond.

9/11 should always be a day of remembrance for those who perished; those who had life whisked away from them in a most obscene act of terrorism. And it should be a day for everyone to say all the things they want to say to the people in their lives, but maybe don’t, because of fear.

What words do we not share with family, friends, and loved ones for fear of exposing ourselves? So many. We have such fear of laying our hearts on the line, petrified of rejection. Better to be silent than to be turned away. But is it better? I think Shakespeare said, “Better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.” Such wisdom in those words.

On the somber anniversary of 9/11, live and love like it’s your last day on earth. Because you never know. How careful we would be if only we knew which goodbyes would be our last. And say a prayer for all those who died on that tragic day at the turn of the century. May they rest in peace.