Tell Us Your Story "The world will never be the same." How often, since September 11, have we heard these words! We are clearly relearning how to coexist and interact within and across national borders. We are living in and seeking to fathom the meanings of quite unexpected chapters of national, cultural, and world histories. Understandably, media fix on global concerns.

There is another complementary stream of stories, less often told or understood.

• Stories of anguish and resilience unfolding beneath the surface of distress about global events.
• Stories of far more local and deeply personal significance.
• Stories of the grief of immediate survivors .
• Stories of the unnamed grief of all who witnessed the horrible events in person or on television.
• Stories about how individuals, families, neighborhoods, and communities in New York, Washington, D.C., across the nation and around the world are returning to surroundings and lives that can never be just as they were before 9-11.
• Stories of the grief-stricken of the Oklahoma bombing and other tragedies have reached out to their counter-parts in New York and Washington.
• Stories about learning to carry the pain of horror and loss, reshaping and redirecting shattered lives, reviving faith and hope, and embracing lessons and meanings that endure.

Many of you who visit this website are living such stories. Surely global events are significant precisely because they profoundly affect the unfolding of so many personal stories. Why not commit your stories to writing? Explore their meanings. Bolster your resolve to learn from your experiences. Deepen your understanding of yourself, your family, or your community. Share your gratitude for a friend, or a stranger, who lent a hand. (Click here for ideas about writing your story.)