Rick Tobin By Rick Tobin
Mourning and remembrance are upon us, as you read this. It is always so. Events send their ripples into waters of our lives, shaking our fragile hopes from comfortable moorings. Traumas near us in time and place leave us fearful, in sorrow and doubt, but that fades after initial wounds heal uniquely in each person. In time, we can revisit these memories in remembrance, like touching a scar upon our arm from childhood, without still feeling the pain, but recalling the moment.
At this reading, we may be honoring a national remembrance, for wars once started, once ended, and always once demanding great cost. This time might also be sacred for reflecting on the shadows left over our country from natural cataclysms that forever reshaped state, city or rural inhabitants. These times of recall respect the memories of lives touched and taken, but we further cherish them by our resilience through sharing stories of our predecessors’ empowerment after surviving through and beyond overwhelming trials.
We mourn now, somewhere in our land, whenever this is read, for losses that seem too great to bear. These may be from departures of the renowned or the innocent, or from events that seem ominous by creating a menacing future; however, no matter the cause, the pain at this moment seems compelling. Take action, now, to reach out, to support your friends and loved ones in realizing we remain joined, for only the living can mourn. Only survivors remember. We honor the past by touching others with our caring. It is our soul’s duty to rejoice with the living while freeing ourselves from history we cannot change. We reflect in the pool of the past, but move on, emboldened by the providence of waking each day, still able to make a difference in life’s voyage.
We treasure the gifts our ancestors bequeathed through sacrifice, willing to go on into that unknown land; arm in arm, they endured through whatever misadventures befell them. We mourn. We remember. We continue.
Rick Tobin Copyright 12/7/2016
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