On September 9th, 2001, about 4 a.m., I was jolted awake from a dream.
I had been startled by the dream imagery of a rocketing object, looking like a blurry missile, colliding with the side of a large skyscraper.
The image was pixellated, like watching a t.v. too closely.
The object propelled into the building on one side, and flame spouted out the other like a lotus bloom.
A voice in the dream, like a gentle, concerned friend over my shoulder, said simply, “Don’t stress over this. It has to happen. We are all one.”
I remember orienting myself to the room upon waking and actually laughing out loud somewhat cynically at that remembered remark from the dream.
“We are all one.”
It’s one of the reasons I remembered the dream so well. I thought to myself basically, “What a cheesy statement… we are all one. What’s next, will my dreams be singing Beatles songs to me?”
Getting visions of climactic events to come was not my thing. I didn’t have a crystal ball or aspire to have one or even much believe in them. To me, it was just another dream that I would rather have discounted.
Yet, a few short days later I would again be awoken from bed, by a friend leaving me a frantic, heartwrenched message on the answering machine, letting me know that towers were falling and that at least two of my best friends may be dead.
You see, my roommate was at the WTC. On vacation the evening before, he’d emailed me he’d be at the Borders books there the moment they opened to get an important email I’d sent him at their internet cafe. My other best friend lived in the October films apartment next to the towers, in a building that was half demolished in an instant. I’d spoken to him at 2 a.m. the night previous as he was crashing out after a long night of writing. My accountant was on Flight 19 that crashed in a Pennsylvania field. My neighbor’s husband worked in the area of the Pentagon that was hit.
Suffice to say I didn’t listen to that dream voice. I had plenty to stress about, and I stressed.
Yet, by the following day, I knew all my friends, unlike so many others, survived. My roommate woke up late and watched the planes hit as he stood on the Jersey shore, getting in a car to go to the subway. My other friend awoke just in time to see the first tower fall and ran in his pajamas and slippers for his life. My accountant took a later flight to spend more time with her husband. My neighbor’s husband had called in sick that day from the Pentagon.
We went to war and the world changed and I found it hard to make sense of it all. It was a dark time, both personally and collectively.
I can’t say where that dream or that inner voice came from. I can, however, say that I have re-evaluated what I believe to be true about that statement, “We are all one.”
It is not trite, it is not cheesy… it’s profound, and it’s the first clue in answering the riddle of life we are all asked to solve in one way or another.
I had never heard of the phrase before that dream. I’ve heard it a lot in recent years since.
Check out the video below that ties science, spirit and that valuable phrase together in a way that works. It’s about that statement, “We are all one.” And It’s worth 16 minutes of your day.