I can't stop crying. It is so horrific. This morning when my alarm went off at 6:30, the usually goofy stupid morning guys were talking very seriously about the crash so I immediately turned on the TV to find out what happened and was greeted with the sight of the gaping holes in the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Then a plane crashed into the Pentagon. A few minutes later, the south tower collapsed. I turned off the TV to make sure Joey didn't see it before I had a chance to talk to her about it.

How do you tell a seven-year-old girl about this terrible, terrible tragedy without scaring the beejeebers out of her? Sweetly, innocently, in our family prayers this morning, she prayed for those involved in the planes and in buildings.

There are more planes unaccounted for, reports of crashes elsewhere, bomb threats, car bombs, the capitol and white house evacuated, the president and vice president and speaker of the house esconced in safe places. Thousands of people have died. Tens of thousands more injured. Where will it end?

I have loved ones--family and friends--who are far from home and who may be unable to get back home again for awhile.

Would that this were a terrible, awful dream from which our country could awake. All I can do is watch and cry and pray.

--Lisa