A Prayerful End to All Conflict Everywhere!
Our national Department of Defense recently became the Department of War…what a missed opportunity to make an important statement about what our nation’s “heart values” are, or could be, given appropriate direction and wisdom. I would instead recommend calling it the Department of Peace – a much better focus for our country from my perspective; I submit the majority of those who live in our world might feel the same.
Today is Memorial Day. Even when we don’t agree with war, as I suspect most of us don’t, we still take time to honor the memory of those who served and didn’t survive. They answered the call of duty to country, going off to foreign lands, no doubt most of them scared, and many many of them just kids. We honor their families on this day, too. I can’t imagine the heartbeak at receiving the news of a loved one’s death, or MIA/POW status, or never receiving any word at all about what happened – they just never returned. Memorial day is not just about the past. Hostile conflicts throughout our world continue up to now; current events are saturated with the word WAR as more precious children of God are killed in the line of duty, frequently to serve someone else’s false gods of greed and power.
Peace to their souls.
And war-time casualties come in different ways. I consider Memorial Day a tribute to them as well, who, like a friend I had in high school, returned physically, but…
Tommy was a few years older than I, just back from Vietnam, and came to visit me in Borger. He confided he felt “dead inside.” I really didn’t grasp the depth of his heartbreak until I was a seasoned nurse with a lot more human trauma experience, but something that happened during his visit is a lasting, sad memory. We were sitting in the living room talking, and my daddy came home from work, raising up our big, heavy and noisy garage door to come inside. It was just a familiar rumble to me, but it triggered Tommy, who immediately bolted from his chair and hit the floor face down with arms protecting his head. He was shaking, so embarrassed, and left not long after, never visiting again. I still think of him sometimes. I don’t know where he is or if he is still in the dimension of the living, but I send out peace energy, hoping that somewhere along the way he felt alive again.
Peace is a soothing, healing, grounding word, releasing restorative energy that counteracts chaos. This Memorial Day, as we remember, let us also remember to affirm PEACE, to achieve that Peaceful End to All Conflict Everywhere, internal and external. It is only with peace in our own hearts can we manifest peace everywhere. Blessed Memorial Day, and Peace to all.