When the world around you stops and a deep in your gut sickness arrives. “This can’t be happening” repeats in your head. It can’t get worse. Just wait. Ultimate fear begins to set in. Nothing is more real or surreal when you feel the best option is to jump. Disbelief lays down with panic. All unfolding in slow motion. And it just got worse.

A black line pushes toward the ground. Yellow smoke and debris mushroom in its wake. Blackness envelops the chaos. A beehive of activity all around. Attempts to reassure are needed, but fall flat with what you see. Eerie pockets of silence hang below once sunny skies. And once again amidst the destruction, death rains down. Unimaginable thuds haunt in real time.

White dust. Screaming sirens. Emotions flow unbridled. Tears streaming upon empty faces. The blue September sky is still there – holding angels – but it’s hard to see. In an instant everything has changed. Living on will now demand more.