Thoughts for your Memorial Day Weekend

We cherish too, the Poppy red

That grows on fields where valor led,

It seems to signal to the skies

That blood of heroes never dies.

-Moina Michael 1915

This poem was written about the ultimate sacrifices made by the men and women in the Armed Forces. That is what Memorial Day is all about. Remembering and Honoring them. We seem to have forgotten that along the way. These days when you ask someone about Memorial Day, you will hear about barbecues, picnics, concerts, out of town excursions, and sales, sales, sales . You rarely hear that they will spend the day remembering those who have fought and died to protect their freedoms. Rarely will you hear that they will spend their day with a Veteran who is alone in a nursing home. Rarely will you hear that they will invite to their picnics and barbecues military personnel who are far from home, and lonely. But to me that is what Memorial Day is supposed to be about. So while you are enjoying the freedom to spend your Memorial Day weekend anyway you want, contemplate this...when was the last time you did something, anything to say "Thank You for all you have sacrificed for me." to any member of the Armed Forces, living or dead? Plant a flag for just one of them, and say a prayer for them all.