Remembering

I really appreciate my mom’s Poppy painting.  I remember the poem, ‘Flanders Field’.  It stirs something in me as I remember mom’s stories of war.  She lived through World War II.  My mom was not Jewish nor was she was German, she was a little Dutch Protestant girl growing up in occupied Holland.
She remembers the German Nazis staying at her farm and occupying her town.  She remembers seeing the destruction of the bombs that fell upon her village, the scarcity of food, the sounds of warplanes overhead, the uncertainty of each day and the death of friends and neighbours.
She remembers the realities of war and for many those realities exist today to a far more serious extent.

On November 11, 1918 there was a cease-fire as World War I ended.
To this day we pause to remember those who fought in, died in or suffered in war, not only the victims of World War I but World War II and the subsequent wars that have followed, even the ones being fought today.

So while we pray for peace and harmony to rule this world may we take a moment to remember on the eleventh day of the eleventh month at the eleventh hour those who fought and those who fight for freedoms we strive toward.

Lest we forget!