The Link
From the World Trade Center stairwell
Jonathan Weaver
When I heard people around me saying that people
were jumping from the fire in One World Trade Center,
my first thought was "Choose life."
I am not talking about the horrible human choice so
many faced that day, and the tremendous bravery
that everyone showed. I knew that I had to look past
the picture, to find the center of life that is God.
It came to me so clearly that the real choice was to
choose Life with a capital L. To choose obedience and
recognition of God, Life, Love, as the center and
source of my being. To choose man as spiritual,
perfect and eternal. Especially to choose to forgive.
To Love and forgive immediately and often.
When the second plane hit WTC2 and I was on the
44th floor, I had just stepped out of an elevator,
coming down from my office on 68. Dust and rubble
burst out of the elevator shafts and stairways, and
there was a lot of panic.
Again I felt strongly that I needed to love and forgive.
To acknowledge the perfect Love (God) who leaves
no place for fear. I clung to the need to see and feel
Love. To see and feel only what God knew about man.
I also sang to myself from a hymn I know:
Everlasting arms of Love
Are beneath, around, above;
God it is who bears us on,
His the arm we lean upon.
The descent was orderly and efficient. So many
people as we were descending were actively
expressing Love. Helping others, calming their fears.
Embracing and comforting them, getting them out of
the building. Where possible, friends and colleagues
were staying together to make sure that everyone
was safe.
When we got to the bottom, there were security
guards, police, and firemen everywhere, keeping us to
a safe path. Suppressing both their own fear and
ours, and expressing so much courage and love.
It sounds strange but one of my abiding impressions
was how much there is to be grateful for, and how
many people to be grateful to. Because most
businesses opened at 9am, half an hour or even 15
minutes later there would have been so many more in
the building. On my team, many were on vacation or
late. The planes hit high, and the buildings didn't
collapse right away. There were so many people
actively helping, actively combating the fear and
horror, and witnessing courage and love.
I won't go into the whole thing. Everything got worse
for a bit, then it got better (at least for me and those
around me). But throughout, I was able to keep
somewhat focused on the need to love and forgive.
That one line, "Choose Life," included "Choose Love
and forgiveness" -- immediate love, immediate
forgiveness was so important. I was unharmed, as
were so so many others.
As the work started (within hours) to rebuild the city's
infrastructure, and I have taken part in that work,
there have been so many opportunities to forgive.
I asked myself the day after if this has shaken my
faith in God. No, it hasn't. But it has shaken my faith
in matter, and it has shaken my faith in mortal man.
To me, it's shown that location, distance, material
comfort, and isolation are not enough to destroy hate
or to insulate us from it. We need God.
We need to actively love. We all need to actively
love, and many of us, certainly myself, need to do it
harder and better and more all embracingly. We need
to start with Love, with the God who is Principle,
Mind, Spirit, Soul, Life, Truth, and Love. We need to
stick to the unshakeable rock that is Truth, Love. We
need to choose Life, choose Love and embrace each
other more widely than ever before in that omnipotent
loving. We need to live the brotherhood that our one
God, one Father-Mother, represents.
I am grateful for the prayers and thoughts of so many
who have helped me, and all those involved.
Gratitude, forgiveness, and persistent prayer are
clearly the way forward.
From the World Trade Center stairwell
Jonathan Weaver
When I heard people around me saying that people
were jumping from the fire in One World Trade Center,
my first thought was "Choose life."
I am not talking about the horrible human choice so
many faced that day, and the tremendous bravery
that everyone showed. I knew that I had to look past
the picture, to find the center of life that is God.
It came to me so clearly that the real choice was to
choose Life with a capital L. To choose obedience and
recognition of God, Life, Love, as the center and
source of my being. To choose man as spiritual,
perfect and eternal. Especially to choose to forgive.
To Love and forgive immediately and often.
When the second plane hit WTC2 and I was on the
44th floor, I had just stepped out of an elevator,
coming down from my office on 68. Dust and rubble
burst out of the elevator shafts and stairways, and
there was a lot of panic.
Again I felt strongly that I needed to love and forgive.
To acknowledge the perfect Love (God) who leaves
no place for fear. I clung to the need to see and feel
Love. To see and feel only what God knew about man.
I also sang to myself from a hymn I know:
Everlasting arms of Love
Are beneath, around, above;
God it is who bears us on,
His the arm we lean upon.
The descent was orderly and efficient. So many
people as we were descending were actively
expressing Love. Helping others, calming their fears.
Embracing and comforting them, getting them out of
the building. Where possible, friends and colleagues
were staying together to make sure that everyone
was safe.
When we got to the bottom, there were security
guards, police, and firemen everywhere, keeping us to
a safe path. Suppressing both their own fear and
ours, and expressing so much courage and love.
It sounds strange but one of my abiding impressions
was how much there is to be grateful for, and how
many people to be grateful to. Because most
businesses opened at 9am, half an hour or even 15
minutes later there would have been so many more in
the building. On my team, many were on vacation or
late. The planes hit high, and the buildings didn't
collapse right away. There were so many people
actively helping, actively combating the fear and
horror, and witnessing courage and love.
I won't go into the whole thing. Everything got worse
for a bit, then it got better (at least for me and those
around me). But throughout, I was able to keep
somewhat focused on the need to love and forgive.
That one line, "Choose Life," included "Choose Love
and forgiveness" -- immediate love, immediate
forgiveness was so important. I was unharmed, as
were so so many others.
As the work started (within hours) to rebuild the city's
infrastructure, and I have taken part in that work,
there have been so many opportunities to forgive.
I asked myself the day after if this has shaken my
faith in God. No, it hasn't. But it has shaken my faith
in matter, and it has shaken my faith in mortal man.
To me, it's shown that location, distance, material
comfort, and isolation are not enough to destroy hate
or to insulate us from it. We need God.
We need to actively love. We all need to actively
love, and many of us, certainly myself, need to do it
harder and better and more all embracingly. We need
to start with Love, with the God who is Principle,
Mind, Spirit, Soul, Life, Truth, and Love. We need to
stick to the unshakeable rock that is Truth, Love. We
need to choose Life, choose Love and embrace each
other more widely than ever before in that omnipotent
loving. We need to live the brotherhood that our one
God, one Father-Mother, represents.
I am grateful for the prayers and thoughts of so many
who have helped me, and all those involved.
Gratitude, forgiveness, and persistent prayer are
clearly the way forward.
