Month: May 2014

The young dead soldiers do not speak.

Nevertheless, they are heard in the still houses:
who has not heard them?

They have a silence that speaks for them at night
and when the clock counts.

They say: We were young. We have died.
Remember us. …

They say: Whether our lives and our deaths were for
peace and a new hope or for nothing we cannot say,
it is you who must say this.

We leave you our deaths. Give them their meaning.
We were young, they say. We have died; remember us. 

–Archibald MacLeish

Who do you remember this Memorial Day? What do you do in their memory?

You could hold a friend close in a hug, or at bit of a distance with a clasped hand. But you might want to go down the road with an arm around each other, facing out toward the world, but firmly connected side by side.

What helps you to find the perfect balance of intimacy and independence?

Sometimes we are given gifts of such startling abundance—like the sight of a bed of iris in full bloom—that just for the moment the world stands still while we catch our breath and give thanks.

When was the last time you gave thanks for an abundance of loveliness?

Maybe you’ve had times when you’ve felt like you were just holding on by a thread as the wind pulled and buffeted you. Maybe you’ve found that something that holds you is not as fragile as you thought.

What thread keeps you grounded when the wind threatens to tear you away?

Learning to walk is making a bold move into independence. What a fine thing it is to have loving hands to hold us up while we learn to strike out on our own.

Who has held you up while you learned to do something new for yourself?