What are you doing tomorrow - Memorial Day? Growing up we would always go to the cemetery in the morning with flowers - hopefully lilacs and tulips and peonies from our own yard. Sometimes in southeastern Idaho they wouldn't be in bloom yet. Then we would have to pull out the fake flowers. There was something very therapeutic about gathering all the flowers and cemetery vases and buckets to get water from the creek right by the cemetery. We would drive the short distance to the cemetery. We would pull out all the flowers and lay them out on the grass by the car and make pretty arrangements, then place them on the grave sites of our loved ones who had passed on. And we would visit. It was a time for friends and family to gather - pay respects and renew acquaintances. Sometimes family would gather for a picnic afterwards with more visiting and somehow as kids we managed to make our own entertainment! You realize this was pre- any electronic games!For 25 years we have lived far enough away from 'home' that participating in this tradition has not been possible. So this year Amanda, Dustin and Emma made the pilgrimage to the cemetery. They went a week early. But they took flowers. They wandered around the cemetery and found family names. They called to ask questions about some of the family. And they remembered. Really - isn't that what it's all about? Remembering? Remembering the veterans who fought for freedoms. Remembering our ancestors and family members who have gone before - whose example and lives have helped to shape our own. Remembering that we don't walk this life alone.
