Memorial Day

it's not about shopping, 

BBQs 

or 

going to the lake.

I'll be honest;

it used to be...

before I had a son serving on active duty

in the military.

Now, I can't spend Memorial Day
without going to 

Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery;
and I never cease to be moved.

Simply too many have been lost.

As sad and overwhelmed as I feel
in coming here sometimes,

I love that in this place
difference of
rank,
privilege,
politics,
race,
income,
religion,
and
circumstance
are erased.

We're reduced to the reality of a birth and a death.

I wonder about 'the gap' in between
those two events.

The
love,
disappointment,
pain,
joy,
work,
play
and
reflection
it contained.

I contemplate my own 'gap'
and I wonder if it's 'enough' -
without even being able to answer
 'enough' for what?

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.



And whether this world knows us 
and remembers us
or not

I believe we are known, 
named 
and claimed
by the One who created us all.

We are ALL his Beloved children.

and, 
while it might be our resting place,
 this earth is not our home.