I am so grateful to live in a New England town where Memorial Day is truly honored. After a parade, a beautiful program on the small green before Town Hall captures the heart and soul of remembrance for our fallen heroes. A grade-schooler reads the Gettysburg Address, Revolutionary War reenactors shoot muskets in salute, the high school marching band plays, Taps is trumpeted, a wreath is placed by the Boys & Girls Scouts, Veterans speak, and the most somber of all--the names of veterans who have died this past year are read and remembered.
I have also made it my tradition to take a solitary walk through the cemetery to observe the day and to remember—to open my heart to God to seek to comprehend the awesome reality that men and women have so courageously and selflessly laid down their precious lives for me and for you. There are some who comprehend it much more fully—those who have seen it with their own eyes on the battlefield and who carry the vivid, life-changing memory in their hearts. And so, trite as it may seem, I take this poem and read it aloud in front of a war hero’s headstone. It humbles me. It helps me to connect. It helps me to remember. It helps me to stop and realize the sacredness of the soil and of lives I haven’t known who have so greatly contributed to my own life. And with deep gratitude to all who have served to defend our Great Nation and to their families and friends and to their Sacrifice, I leave you this poem by Edgar A. Guest: Memorial Day They did not pass in selfishness, they died for all mankind; They died to build a better world for all who stay behind; And we hold their memory dear, and bring them flowers to-day, Should consecrate ourselves once more to live and die as they. These were defenders of the faith and guardians of the truth; That you and I might live and love, they gladly gave their youth; And we who set this day apart to honor them who sleep Should pledge ourselves to hold the faith they gave their lives to keep. If tears are all we shed for them, then they have died in vain; If flowers are all we bring them now, forgotten they remain; If by their courage we ourselves to courage are not led, Then needlessly these graves have closed above our heroes dead. To symbolize our love with flowers is not enough to do; We must be brave as they were brave and true as they were true. They died to build a better world, and we who mourn to-day Should consecrate ourselves once more to live and die as they. Take time today to deeply remember, to connect and to be grateful. It is a sacred day to enter into. “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13
1 Comment
Jeff Lance
5/22/2013 11:49:57 am
Sounds just like our ceremony in Stow, Mass. And we will be reading Edgar Guest's poem this year. Thanks for remembering our fallen heroes.
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Lisa Steigerwalt
Enriching home and family life, especially at the Table Archives
January 2014
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