I don't think it's trite, Rebecca. If there is one bittersweet legacy to that devastating day, I think it is an appreciation for the here and now. Many of us are a bit less like sleepwalkers as we go about our daily lives. I suspect the shockwave has rippled through our lives and our consciousness in scores of ways that we're not even fully aware of.

I listened to the special programming on the CBC today in memory of 9/11 but admit I had to turn it off. It was making me too blue. My way of remembering all those lives so cruelly erased will be flying a kite with my daughter at her school picnic again this Friday. Held a few days after Sept. 11 last year, the picnic was the only thing that brought me solace after two days on an emotional rollercoaster. Flying a kite with Camille and her friends was so simple and so peaceful that it felt as if the jagged hole inside me was almost filled. And that's what I'm trying to remember about that time, rather than the palpable fear and paranoia around me on that day.