Today we honor those who served, their families, friends, and all connected to a network of hope for their lives. We honor all the steps it took to become ready to serve, time served, and all the steps of healing it takes when they return.
I'm the spouse and partner of a Vietnam veteran who met my husband 8 years after his return. I remember my fear in witnessing the bad dreams and the way his body processed his experience of war. Over time, the stories surfaced, just a few when life would present the right moment for him to express his multifaceted history as a soldier. Thank goodness he played the guitar and I could always count on the music to soothe his soul and help him come to terms with his memories. Now, just over fifty years later, healed scars from the cancer surgery due to time enrolled, emotional, and spiritual-based traumas from the loss of friends he fought with, and the fight for hopes of peace when recognition of the truth of ones experience can never fully be validated...only listened to with a compassionate heart.
I give thanks for all who fight for the causes of freedom and pray each day we can listen to one another, honor our differences, and rise together in unison to honor humanity in all it's forms. I pray for love and real compassion in our hearts as we negotiate and heal a new path forward in our future.
Love, Light, and Blessings of Healing,
Caron