remember, remember...

It's Memorial day.  I have been part of so many wonderful, meaningful celebrations of this day over the span of my life.  I have spent this weekend taking scouts to Normandy and participating in laying wreaths in a small cemetery in France. I have placed flags and honored those that willingly gave up their lives so that our freedoms could be protected. Today is about those that paid the ultimate price.  

Yet, here I am sitting at home wondering how many in this country still honor and respects that.  I don't see any advertisements for celebrations or memorials.  There are signs everywhere to take advantage of sales as if that is something that is going to honor the men and women that lost their lives.  

I won't be going shopping or taking advantage of those huge sales.  It feels dirty and completely disrespectful.  I am going to take this day and do like I do most days, honor their sacrifices by working hard to live my best life, to take care of business and hold tight to the values that they fought so hard for. 

I think when you have walked national cemeteries (I highly recommend Normandy and Luxembourg), when you have led a group of 4-6th graders down the coast of Normandy and observed the silence of the waves crashing along the remains of the cement boats that brought them to their deaths, when you have witnessed the tank stoppers and seen the high cliff that was scaled at Pointe du Hoc on a cold, rainy morning.  I have led those same boys through the now quiet fields in Bastogne, where the infamous Battle of the Bulge occurred. We walked, learned and prayed where those lives ended.  You understand on a deeper level the sacrifice and loss.

I celebrate my freedoms, despite the fact that so many have forgotten what they are and seem willing to lay them at the feet of anyone that wants to take them like trophies in a battle. I'm not someone willing to do that.  Maybe it's because of the fact that every generation of my family has had someone serve to defend them.  Maybe it's because I have read the constitution and lived in places that don't have those same protections. 

In any case, today is a special day.  It's a solemn day of remembrance.  It's not the day to go and look for appliances at 30% off or whatever the stupid sales are about.  I understand that folks are struggling right now.  I completely get it.  I went to do our monthly grocery and supply shopping yesterday, I looked at the shelves that are sparsely filled, observed the ridiculous prices, made changes to our purchasing plans due to either lack or costs.  I put gas in my little car, and choked a bit at the price, was it really less than two years ago that it was so cheap? 

I'm not saying don't go take advantage of every sale you can find if it is something that you need.  But honor this day.  Take a moment to thank those that have passed on, it was their lives that allow us to continue to live and fight another day for the glorious freedoms we have. Even those of us that no longer understand the value of their gifts. 

Today, will be much like most of my days now.  I am engrossed in canning healthy food for Hubs and I, creating things that are not filled with chemicals and ingredients that are detrimental to our health.  I will do my chores, tend my garden, find time to knit and maybe even enjoy a dinner out with friends. I will continue to work hard on being as self-sufficient as possible.  To make decisions that will help us to navigate these times we are living in.  

I feel we are being treated like the frog in the boiling water, the temperature was slowly being increased and we were becoming numb to the effects.  Now I fear that so many are numb to the point they are willingly allowing the abuses and harm that is being inflicted.  The temperature simply keeps going higher and higher and too many are willingly being boiled alive without trying to fight for their rights and freedoms.  

I'm not that person.

I will never be that person.  I am hurting for those that are.  I have a strong need and desire to stay busy.  To push back the only way that I know how.  That is by becoming less and less reliant on what they are telling me I must buy and or do and by becoming more reliant on what my heart and spirit know I must do. I live in the suburbs, I will never raise my own meats, I don't have enough room for a full on garden, although I would willingly do it if I could, I am currently not allowed to have chickens for eggs (but who knows if that will be a forever thing) so I am still reliant to a degree.  But that degree is getting smaller all the time. 

Yesterday Hubs and I started to pick up napkins.  Something that seems so basic.  As we looked at the prices and availability we made the decision to switch to cloth napkins.  I do laundry anyhow, a few extra cloths are not going to be an issue.  I offered to make them, I have plenty of fabric.  Hubs felt I have plenty to keep me busy right now, so we decided to purchase the initial ones.  Found them pretty darn cheap and it's a start.  As I get more organized I will make us more. 

It's the little things that are leading up to a peace of mind.  I'm working hard, but I am working hard because it does bring me peace.  It brings me comfort to know that while I can't stop what is going on around me, I can choose to not participate in the insanity to a large degree.  I am enjoying the sense of control that these small efforts are bringing to me.  Ironically, some of these efforts are what would be considered "green" or sustainable.  

In a way, I feel like I am fighting a battle for freedom in a manner that I am able to do.  What are your thoughts? It's time to get busy... don't forget to honor the precious gift that has been given to you by those that have gone before.

love and peace...