It’s Memorial Day here in the United States - a day where we remember and honor those who gave their lives for our freedom. Maybe a time will come when peace is the strongest memory for all the world. But, until then, on this Memorial Day I am sending love, light and prayers to all who have lost their lives and to the living who go on without their loved ones.
May they be blessed. May they be held in the heart of the world. May they be remembered and acknowledged today with gratitude, respect and honor.
When I think about Memorial Day, I think about those I knew as a young woman who lost their lives in the Vietnam War. The first time I went to the Vietnam Memorial and stood in front of the panels, reading one name after another, I was overcome with sorrow and a profound sense of loss. Seeing the name of someone I had known, now etched in a wall with so many other names was strangely more powerful than any obituary he might have had. On the National Park Services website is this description:
From afar, the memorial appears as a gash on the landscape, an unhealed wound.
It’s an incredibly evocative artful memorial - unlike any other that had come before, and its power lies in the simplicity of its minimalist design. As you stand in front of the wall and walk along it, there is nothing to distract the eye from the harsh reality that 58,000 gave their lives in a conflict that divided America like none had since perhaps the Civil War. It was a conflict that left returning soldiers without the support and honor they deserved. The memorial and its inherent grace brought it all home so a nation could grieve.
I am sending love, light and prayers to all who have given their lives for my freedom and to the living who go on.
May their sacrifice be remembered and acknowledged today with gratitude, respect and honor.
With love,
Cathleen