The alarm went off and she hit “snooze”.  The date said Tuesday, 9/11/01.  She unconsciously noted the date, 9/11, and thought, "hmmmm - 9-11, "911", hope that isn't indicative of the kind of day it's going to be!  Yawning and stretching and trying to wake up, she pondered idly that there would be many of these days before retirement.... She was only 25.

But Karen was an optimist and any possible negative significance of the date,  9/11, didn’t even occur to her.  She always awoke feeling like today was the first day of the rest of her life and truly tried to live it that way.  Maybe she was a dreamer, but following her dreams had taken her to the position she now held at one of the world's most prestigious financial institutions right here in NYC, the hub of the world, and she was truly grateful for every day she had to learn, grow and climb the only way she knew how - up!

She could smell the coffee wafting its way in from the kitchen.  She lived alone, so she made sure to have a coffeemaker with an automatic alarm.  She just set the clock for 6:30 am and let it brew.  The aroma alone was enough to get her up and moving.

As she showered and dressed she thought about her schedule for the day, and her brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews at home in Minnesota, and how proud they all were of her accomplishments.  She smiled to herself thinking of the day Ginger, her favorite niece, visited with her sister and brother-in-law last Christmas.  They had gone to Rockefeller Center and seen the people skating, the huge Christmas Tree, shoppers everywhere happily bustling about with their Christmas gifts.  She silently giggled as she recalled how Ginger, only four, had almost fallen over gazing up at the tall building Karen worked in at the World Trade Center.

Karen believed that "the early bird got the worm", so she arrived at 8:30am, at her desk, ready to face the day's trials, thinking nothing more than about her tasks at hand.  At 8:45am, Karen's life, along with most of the employees in that building and the passengers on an American passenger flight, was savagely snuffed out  when the airplane, hijacked by a group of terrorists, struck her building at the Twin Towers.

How could she know this day was to be her last?  One never knows.  That’s why we must try to live each day as IF it were our last.  And maybe if we all did, there would be no terrorists, no hate, no greed, no war.

Idealistic?  Yes.  But if we don’t have a dream, or if we lose sight of our dreams, we are just so much flotsom lost in space and chaos will reign supreme.

So take a moment to dream.  G Rizzo