Watched MSNBC's 9/11 Footage This Morning, Couldn't Help Myself

I didn't want to watch it, the footage from 9/11. I sort of happened into watching it.

Morning Joe was on the TV in the kitchen and, while I was reading the newspapers and nursing my third cup of coffee, I was surprised to see MSNBC re-broadcast the original footage from Sept. 11, 2001 as it unfolded on live TV. And I couldn't bring myself to turn it off.

I gasped at the same places at which I originally gasped when I watched the Today Show eight years ago, especially the moment when my then-3-year-old son and I saw the second airplane crash into the twin towers. I got the chills and a sickening feeling in my gut as the towers collapsed and eyewitnesses told Katie Couric and Matt Lauer about the horrors they'd seen on the streets of New York.

I recalled the intense feelings of uncertainty and fear when, at one point on that fall morning in 2001, people weren't sure if there'd been bombs planted in buildings around New York and Washington, D.C., whether there'd been a bomb at the State Department and exactly how many airplanes had been hijacked. I flinched when I heard the voice of the late Tim Russert, providing updates from Washington.

I kept MSNBC on all morning while I worked and felt as though I was peeking inside of a time capsule, one we open once each year.

Above you'll see an AP photo of the location where the towers once stood. Ground Zero. Still reminds me of an open wound.

Image credit: Matt Lennihan AP via MSNBC.