Our THPL mission implores us to travel through life with a level of awareness, attentiveness, and engagement that is at the next level. It asks us to invest more time, more energy, more care in the life we live of and that which is around us. And when we live to this standard we seek to understand more than otherwise and we seek to know because it is the combination that drives higher degrees of fulfillment.
Today is a perfect example of how we can, minimally, take it to the next level. Today is Memorial Day, a US Federal Holiday set aside for us to remember the men and women who died while serving in our countries armed forces. A few questions that we could ask:
- Did we stop for a moment and remember a fallen member of our military family?
- Did we reflect on the significance of the sacrifice that our military have made for us?
- Do we know the history of Memorial Day? (a bit of research done tells us that Memorial Day is celebrated on the last Monday of May. It was formerly known as Decoration Day and originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the Union and Confederate soldiers who died in the war. Today Memorial Day honors all Americans who died while in military service )
- Is the flag today at half-staff or full-staff? As it turns out it is both. It is initially raised quickly to the top of the staff and then solemnly lowered to half-staff, this is to remember the more than one million men and women whose lives have been lost, it remains till noon at half-staff and then it is raised to full-staff for the remainder of the day to resolve that we will not allow their sacrifice to be in vain and we will always fight for liberty and justice for all.
Our version of THPL would do well to bring along with it the sentiments and deep level commitments represented on this holiday observance. It feels quite good to be able to take a moment and reflect on, and appreciate, all that has been done for us and will be, by our military, for many years to come.
Loving life, and knowing I can do so because of the men and women of our armed forces.
Ciao
joe