LEST WE FORGET

As I was sitting on my porch today, enjoying the sound of the neighbor children laughing, watching the elderly walk their dogs, and hearing the sound of busyness everywhere about me, I stopped to reflect.

It is not because of anything I ever did that I enjoy peace and safety within my home, my city, my country.  There is something far beyond anything that a normal citizen could ever do to enjoy being able to travel this broad country, start a business, go to school and any of a myriad of liberties that we enjoy but take for granted every day. 

I know that my country has many who fought and died for our own liberty and that of other countries too.  I often hear some say that we should not send our troops to foreign lands to fight battles that are not ours. I often think this: that the survivors of Auschwitz, the people who were freed in Bosnia, those, because our military fought for them, would not think that way. 

Yes, our country has engaged in battles that would seem to not be our own.  But in thinking about this, I realize that the cause of liberty and the destruction of tyranny ARE our battles.  And I think that those who fought, served not only our citizens, but mankind.  For this I am proud beyond belief.  For this I am grateful. 

And as I sit here today to reflect, I think of my ancestors who fought in the revolutionary war, the war of 1812, as Union soldiers in the Civil war.  I think of my grandfathers who fought in France in World War I.  I think of my father and so many of those I have known who fought in World War II.  I think of those of my own generation, who fought in Korea and Vietnam. I think of those who fought in Bosnia, in Iran and Iraq and Afganistan, some who are currently serving there. 

All of these gave to our country.  Not just their time away from their families, but their lives, their sanity, their bodies, their chance at a “normal” life like the one I can enjoy from my porch.  I know so many who survived the war, came home to attempt to resume life and found that the horrors of war had changed them forever and for always.  

Some gave all.  I visited the cemetery today to decorate the grave of my father and my stepmother with flowers.  My father served in World War II in the Pacific theatre.  He passed away on March 4^th of this year.  Just two weeks later, he now has a Marine resting next to him, who was barely 20 years old. I do not know where he served, or anything about him.  I just know that here is a young man, who gave his life so that I can be free to sit on my porch, listen to the sound of the children laughing, and remember that the liberty I enjoy came with a price that was paid for by our military.     

So to current and past veterans, Air Force, Marine, Navy and Army, Thank you for my freedom.  You will not be forgotten.   

Taps

Day is done, gone the sun,
From the lake, from the hills, from the sky;
Soldier sleep, safely rest, God is nigh.

Fading light, dims the sight,
And a star gems the sky, gleaming bright.
From afar, drawing nigh, falls the night.

Thanks and praise, for our days,
'Neath the sun, 'neath the stars, neath the sky;
As we go, this we know, God is nigh.

No Sniveling!

It is time to move forward.  I woke this morning from a dream about a paisley Nehru jacket, a green velvet dress and the woman who helped me make them, my step-mother, Ruth.  In that dream I had stopped to visit her, went to my work, then on to lunch and decided to run back. I have moved past grief, to gratitude, and now on to gratefulness.  But the Lord had more in store for me on this day.

It was time to take a visit to the cemetery this morning, to see if they had put down my dad’s headstone.  I woke way beyond early, made coffee, debated on whether to go or not, and then put my hair up in a ponytail and headed off to the cemetery with coffee in hand. 

It is a beautiful clear morning, but hot already, and I decided I had made a good choice to go before the traffic started.  As is with Him, there were other plans for this trip.  I put on my favorite Christian radio station, and was just grooving along with the music.  Arriving at the cemetery, I inched my way past the new graves that have been filled since my dad passed just 2 months ago.  When I finally got to Dad’s, my suspicions were confirmed that the cemetery has yet to put down a headstone.  I stood there a minute in the morning quiet.  Another confirmation. Yep, Dad is not there.  He has moved on to other realms.  It was a comfort to know this. 

 Since there is no one there to visit, I decided to take my coffee and take the long way home.  I turned the radio back on, and the song, “I will rise” by Shawn McDonald came on.  This song had brought me to tears many times during the years of watching my dad suffer in his pain and confinement.  This time I did not cry (well, just a little), but got that smile that says, “I get it God!”   Suddenly, I was alert. My ears were on and tuned.

As I drove along, I passed a car at an intersection with a sign across the front that said, “NO SNIVELING.” I chuckled at that, until, not 50 feet from there, I passed a woman in a wheelchair struggling to get on down the road.  Then I passed an elderly gentleman, clearly homeless, struggling along with his walking stick.  Then an accident with a motorcyclist.  Then an elderly man walking along picking up trash along the road. 

I GET IT, LORD!

I have little to snivel about.  I am blessed every day, with a job, with family, with friends.  I am not attempting to wheel myself down a cobbled up street in a wheel chair.  I am traveling in a nice black car with leather seats.  I am not homeless, I am on my way to my comfy apartment.  I am not relegated to picking up trash, I have a job.  But I have so much more. 

I have a God who loves me, who knows that most days I am not paying attention to the spiritual realm I live in, and some days am just plain stupid. Here is the greatest blessing of all.  He loves me anyway!   He talks to me even though most of the time I am not listening.  Then is when he posts signs clearly that say things like STOP SNIVELING!

I hope you are blessed today to hear His voice!