Today has been Remembrance Day - the day we take a moment to pay homage to those who have given their lives for a cause they believed in.
Those who have lost their lives in despicable wars all over the world.
Many never to be laid to rest on home soil.
This is a day that means a lot to me.
The dead are part of my life - ghosts of the dead are daily visitors.
I go out of my way to communicate with them, to search them out - to sometimes even chase them.
I research them, I honor them and I understand that they all have an important story to tell.
Today I felt compelled to spend some time paying my respect to some of those souls buried at my local cemetery.
I wanted to search out some headstones belonging to servicemen who had died during war and to leave a flower and say a prayer.
I wanted to choose those souls who may have not had a visitor for many years, maybe neglected, maybe their families were no longer living close by or maybe they were also now dead and these servicemen had no one to visit them anymore. Maybe...
The cemetery is quite big and currently in use so I went on my search for sites amongst the hundreds there.
To my surprise it was quite hard to spot them - I walked around and around in the oldest parts of the cemetery and only managed to find one that came into my view.
I stopped and laid a flower and spent a moment in reflection.
Then I continued to walk.
Where were these gravesites?
I mumbled under my breath "Where are you guys?"
I want to see you -
When to my surprise I heard a voice off to my side saying "I'm here".
What?
I stopped in my tracks.
There was no one else at the cemetery - only me.
I turned in the direction of the voice...and there was my next stop.
"Well, Hello Sir" I said "I am glad you called out to me".
The voice had been as clear as a bell and I was very surprised to see the grave right in front of me.
How wonderful. I took my time here.
Then as I stood up from this one I turned to continue my walk.
Again...I could hear another voice "I'm over here!"
This was crazy wonderful!
I smiled as I went to my next spot which again I was led to directly.
It was now as if these graves had flashing beacons on top of them.
I could spot them clearly now.
Once again, I left a flower and a prayer and then I felt the need to move on again.
The next spot was right in the middle of some very old graves, totally enclosed in a spot so very hard to find, yet, once again this serviceman was so waiting for me.
This gentleman wanted to talk.
He wanted to tell me that it was 'so unfair'.
I had to totally agree - it was unfair and heartbreaking.
I pulled out some weeds around this one and cleaned off leaves.
He wanted to be clean, neat and tidy - just as he had always been in life.
Goodness ..now a dilemma!
I had one more flower..and there were so many voices.
I had to apologise that I had been caught off guard - I wasnt expecting them to be so vocal.
So I chose one more grave.
This was my final stop but along the way back to the car I found two more men.
Both got prayers and my time.
In what seemed like 30 minutes I had spent over an hour with these lovely souls.
May they all rest in peace and may we, the living, never forget our dead.
Those who have lost their lives in despicable wars all over the world.
Many never to be laid to rest on home soil.
This is a day that means a lot to me.
The dead are part of my life - ghosts of the dead are daily visitors.
I go out of my way to communicate with them, to search them out - to sometimes even chase them.
I research them, I honor them and I understand that they all have an important story to tell.
Today I felt compelled to spend some time paying my respect to some of those souls buried at my local cemetery.
I wanted to search out some headstones belonging to servicemen who had died during war and to leave a flower and say a prayer.
I wanted to choose those souls who may have not had a visitor for many years, maybe neglected, maybe their families were no longer living close by or maybe they were also now dead and these servicemen had no one to visit them anymore. Maybe...
The cemetery is quite big and currently in use so I went on my search for sites amongst the hundreds there.
To my surprise it was quite hard to spot them - I walked around and around in the oldest parts of the cemetery and only managed to find one that came into my view.
I stopped and laid a flower and spent a moment in reflection.
Then I continued to walk.
Where were these gravesites?
I mumbled under my breath "Where are you guys?"
I want to see you -
When to my surprise I heard a voice off to my side saying "I'm here".
What?
I stopped in my tracks.
There was no one else at the cemetery - only me.
"Well, Hello Sir" I said "I am glad you called out to me".
The voice had been as clear as a bell and I was very surprised to see the grave right in front of me.
How wonderful. I took my time here.
Then as I stood up from this one I turned to continue my walk.
Again...I could hear another voice "I'm over here!"
This was crazy wonderful!
I smiled as I went to my next spot which again I was led to directly.
It was now as if these graves had flashing beacons on top of them.
I could spot them clearly now.
Once again, I left a flower and a prayer and then I felt the need to move on again.
The next spot was right in the middle of some very old graves, totally enclosed in a spot so very hard to find, yet, once again this serviceman was so waiting for me.
He wanted to tell me that it was 'so unfair'.
I had to totally agree - it was unfair and heartbreaking.
I pulled out some weeds around this one and cleaned off leaves.
He wanted to be clean, neat and tidy - just as he had always been in life.
Goodness ..now a dilemma!
I had one more flower..and there were so many voices.
I had to apologise that I had been caught off guard - I wasnt expecting them to be so vocal.
So I chose one more grave.
This was my final stop but along the way back to the car I found two more men.
Both got prayers and my time.
In what seemed like 30 minutes I had spent over an hour with these lovely souls.
May they all rest in peace and may we, the living, never forget our dead.
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