Memorial Day weekend is a wonderful time to gather with friends and family and enjoy, perhaps, the first barbecue meal or picnic of the season, depending on where you live in the states, or to be listening to a concert, or watching a parade. It’s a time for love and laughter, conversation and good food, running after the kids, homemade ice cream, apple pie and turning our faces to the sun. I hope you get to do all of that.

More importantly, it’s a time to reflect on and be thankful for those men and women who have given their lives in service to their country; to reflect on and be thankful for those men and women who right now, this very minute, are standing in harm’s way — at home and abroad — in service to their country.

I look at this image, one of many images of those who have sacrificed — given their very lives — and think of the thousands who have gone before them and the thousands who have and will come after them. I can only bow my head in humility and gratitude and pray for their peace.

While I recognize that Memorial Day is a day that honors the dead, and I do, I also wish to take a moment to thank Mr. G, honey, both his parents and my uncles who served. I thank my adopted soldier who was in a desert country last year and is safely home. This small group served and serves in the Air Force, the Marines, the Navy and the Army.

Today, I give a big shout out to my newly adopted, deployed soldier and his brothers and sisters. I thank you every day and pray for your safe and swift return.

In the midst of your long weekend, take a moment to reflect and give thanks for truly remarkable men and women who have given their lives on the battlefield. May they never be forgotten.

Elen