Memorial Day

(the pics on this post aren't mine but ones I found online---seeming best suited for today's post.)

Rain, Rain, Go Away . . .

North Texas has needed rain for what feels like a couple of years, but no more! Lakes are full, rivers are flowing, and the trenches around my flower beds had their own little rivers all weekend. Enough rain already! (My friends on the Guadalupe even had to end their tubing early---rapidly rising water levels on the river made the conditions too dangerous---a far cry from the oh-so-low levels last summer, so low we often had to stand and tow our tube over some rocks.)

Okay, so I'm fussing. Rain's good, but we're soaked. Rain indeed fell on the party Saturday night and washed out Splash Day. It also led to the FW Cats deciding to cancel tonight's baseball game. Darnit. They were going to have fireworks! But I'll save the tickets and go again in this next month.

But not every activity was outdoors---I enjoyed a great BBQ over at Kristin and Charles's place, where I finally got to meet Charles's closest friends. I'm very glad about that---before the big move. Kristin was on the couch recovering form knee surgery, but Charles was the most wonderful host. He seems to get that from "Daddy Charles"---whom Kristin and Charles visit in Savannah around Christmas.

And while my weekend has been filled with celebrations, BBQs, parties, and even rained-out ballgames, the fireworks tonight were the time I'd set aside to personally honor those today was reserved for honoring: our fallen soldiers. Of course, I didn't get that opportunity, so I tuned in to some specials on tv, watching the stories of several very young men who went to Iraq but didn't make it home alive. And I shed the tears for all of those families who watch their loved ones serve that duty, for my best friend whose family sacrifices so much for her husband to answer his calling to his country, for countless others.

And my sentiments were echoed in the shows I watched: no matter what I think of our current administration or why we're at war or if we should be at war, we are. And the men and women who are serving the duty to their country are fulfilling their promises to us, their fellow countrymen, to serve proudly---no matter the issues behind it. And for that, I express my deepest gratitude.

On a few vacations or travels out of town I've had the opportunity to get a little closer to memorials and monuments of war. I had been completely unprepared for how deeply I would be moved at Pearl Harbor back in '99. The following year, visiting the concentration camp of Dauchau near Munich was equally as emotional---pulling at the depths of my soul in standing in the place where countless lives were lost, changed, and wasted. And in January, when I was in DC, between the memorials around the mall to the life-changing tour of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum---all of these visits have made my appreciation for our days of recognition a little more meaningful.

Sure, we still enjoy a day off, BBQing, having fun, and sharing good times. But let us take at least a moment in all that to also remember what today is about: it's a day to remember. It's a day to honor.

Soldier, rest! Thy warfare o'er,

Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking,

Dream of battled fields no more.

Days of danger, nights of waking.

-Sir Walter Scott