Watch it all–KSH.

In photos: #MemorialDay weekend 2019 https://t.co/ngwDmGYuo6 #memorialday #military #death #sacrifice #usa

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) May 27, 2019

I walk down the garden-paths,
And all the daffodils
Are blowing, and the bright blue squills.
I walk down the patterned garden-paths
In my stiff, brocaded gown.
With my powdered hair and jeweled fan,
I too am a rare
Pattern. As I wander down
The garden-paths.
My dress is richly figured,
And the train
Makes a pink and silver stain
On the gravel, and the thrift
Of the borders.
Just a plate of current fashion,
Tripping by in high-heeled, ribboned shoes.
Not a softness anywhere about me,
Only whalebone and brocade.
And I sink on a seat in the shade
Of a lime tree. For my passion
Wars against the stiff brocade.
The daffodils and squills
Flutter in the breeze
As they please.
And I weep;
For the lime-tree is in blossom
And one small flower has dropped upon my bosom.
And the splashing of waterdrops
In the marble fountain
Comes down the garden-paths.
The dripping never stops.
Underneath my stiffened gown
Is the softness of a woman bathing in a marble basin,
A basin in the midst of hedges grown
So thick, she cannot see her lover hiding,
But she guesses he is near,
And the sliding of the water
Seems the stroking of a dear
Hand upon her.
What is Summer in a fine brocaded gown!
I should like to see it lying in a heap upon the ground.
All the pink and silver crumpled up on the ground.

I would be the pink and silver as I ran along the paths,
And he would stumble after,
Bewildered by my laughter.
I should see the sun flashing from his sword-hilt and the buckles on his shoes.
I would choose
To lead him in a maze along the patterned paths,
A bright and laughing maze for my heavy-booted lover.
Till he caught me in the shade,
And the buttons of his waistcoat bruised my body as he clasped me,
Aching, melting, unafraid.
With the shadows of the leaves and the sundrops,
And the plopping of the waterdrops,
All about us in the open afternoon–
I am very like to swoon
With the weight of this brocade,
For the sun sifts through the shade.

Underneath the fallen blossom
In my bosom,
Is a letter I have hid.
It was brought to me this morning by a rider from the Duke.
“Madam, we regret to inform you that Lord Hartwell
Died in action Thursday se’nnight.”
As I read it in the white, morning sunlight,
The letters squirmed like snakes.
“Any answer, Madam,” said my footman.
“No,” I told him.
“See that the messenger takes some refreshment.
No, no answer.”
And I walked into the garden,
Up and down the patterned paths,
In my stiff, correct brocade.
The blue and yellow flowers stood up proudly in the sun,
Each one.
I stood upright too,
Held rigid to the pattern
By the stiffness of my gown.
Up and down I walked,
Up and down.

In a month he would have been my husband.
In a month, here, underneath this lime,
We would have broke the pattern;
He for me, and I for him,
He as Colonel, I as Lady,
On this shady seat.
He had a whim
That sunlight carried blessing.
And I answered, “It shall be as you have said.”
Now he is dead.

In Summer and in Winter I shall walk
Up and down
The patterned garden-paths
In my stiff, brocaded gown.
The squills and daffodils
Will give place to pillared roses, and to asters, and to snow.
I shall go
Up and down
In my gown.
Gorgeously arrayed,
Boned and stayed.
And the softness of my body will be guarded from embrace
By each button, hook, and lace.
For the man who should loose me is dead,
Fighting with the Duke in Flanders,
In a pattern called a war.
Christ! What are patterns for?

–Amy Lowell (1874–1925)

The Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer. 9388 American heroes rest here. They saved the world 75 years ago. Now more than ever we must remember what they fought and died to defeat. #MemorialDay pic.twitter.com/9xwPkpowRy

— Jonathan Reiner (@JReinerMD) May 27, 2019

As you and your family prepare to celebrate Memorial Day, I hope you remember the true meaning behind the day. Memorial Day is the day that we’ve set aside to pay tribute to our heroes who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms and all those who have served our Nation.

These heroes are not the only ones who have sacrificed. Behind each of these brave men and women are the families that shared their loved ones with us. The gave up holidays, milestones and achievements with their Veteran so that we can sleep soundly at night.

Because of this, NCA has installed “Tribute to the Fallen and Their Families” plaques within our cemeteries. These plaques are but a small remembrance of incredible service, but I hope they are a gentle reminder of how appreciative our Nation is for the sacrifices of not only our Veterans, but their families.

At NCA we have one sacred mission, to ensure no Veteran ever dies. It is said that we all die two deaths, the first when breath leaves you for the last time and the second, the last time someone speaks your name or tells your story. It is the second that we are committed to ensuring never happens and I task all of you with the same.

Read it all.

On this Memorial Day, join us as we pause to remember our fallen heroes who lost their lives preserving America’s liberties and promoting our values of freedom around the world. pic.twitter.com/4kmNa1SSns

— National Cemeteries (@VANatCemeteries) May 27, 2019

• NCA maintains 3.7 million graves with approximately 700,000 additional developed gravesites available: 418,000 available gravesites for casketed remains, 119,000 in ground gravesites for cremated remains and 162,000 columbarium niches for cremated remains

• NCA manages approximately 21,400 acres within its cemeteries. Approximately 57 percent isundeveloped and, along with available gravesites in developed acreage, has the potential toprovide approximately 5.3 million gravesites.
• Of the 136VA national cemeteries, 78 are open to all interments; 17 can accommodate crematedremains and the remains of family members for interment in the same gravesite as a previouslydeceased family member; and 41 will accomodate only interments of family members in thesamegravesite as a previously deceased family member.

• Since 1973, when VA managed 82 national cemeteries, annual interments in VA nationalcemeteries have increased by more than 366 percent, from 36,400 to 135,306 in FY 2018. Interments are expected to increase annually until the year 2020.

Read it all.

Home of the free because of the brave. Remembering that is what today is all about.

Men and women fought for our freedom and died protecting it. May we never forget their sacrifice and always honor their lives. pic.twitter.com/tPqtQxLt7V

— Rob Way (@RobWayTV) May 27, 2019

From here:

Despondency breaks off its course.
Anguish breaks off its course.
The vulture breaks off its flight.

The eager light streams out,
even the ghosts take a draught.

And our paintings see daylight,
our red beasts of the ice-age studios.
Everything begins to look around.
We walk in the sun in hundreds.

Each man is a half-open door
leading to a room for everyone.

The endless ground under us.

The water is shining among the trees.

The lake is a window into the earth.

To all of the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces who unselfishly sacrificed their lives so we can live as we do today:

Thank you.#MemorialDay pic.twitter.com/sW7kUVTBns

— World War II History (@WW2Facts) May 27, 2019

The muffled drum’s sad roll has beat
The soldier’s last tattoo;
No more on life’s parade shall meet
That brave and fallen few.
On Fame’s eternal camping-ground
Their silent tents are spread,
And Glory guards, with solemn round,
The bivouac of the dead.

No rumor of the foe’s advance
Now swells upon the wind;
Nor troubled thought at midnight haunts
Of loved ones left behind;
No vision of the morrow’s strife
The warrior’s dream alarms;
No braying horn nor screaming fife
At dawn shall call to arms.

Their shriveled swords are red with rust,
Their plumed heads are bowed,
Their haughty banner, trailed in dust,
Is now their martial shroud.
And plenteous funeral tears have washed
The red stains from each brow,
And the proud forms, by battle gashed
Are free from anguish now.

Read it all.

“No family member should ever have to make the sacrifice that you made, and words don’t do the job to convey how much we appreciate you, that we honor your sacrifice, that we honor the fallen, but we do.” https://t.co/5sAuUNxa9N #honorthem @LANationalGuard

— National Guard (@USNationalGuard) May 25, 2019

Most Americans will never serve in the military—actually less than one percent of our population do so. And even among those of us who do, very, very few of us are asked to give that last full measure of devotion. So what is the question for us on this day as we remember those Americans who died on our behalf? I believe that question is —for what shall we live?

Whether or not we wear the uniform of our country, we all have a service to offer, a service to those ideals that reflect God’s universal truths and that our American ancestors captured in the formation of this country. When Jesus left this earth to take his place at the right hand of the Father, he left us, his bride, the church, to carry on his work. So when evil strikes in the form of a school shooting or when nature unleashes its fury and devastates property and lives, when children suffer, when people are hungry or homeless and ask “Where is God?!” we must be there and have them see him in us.

We must bring his comfort and his healing to this world. When we live lives of service to those around us, we honor the God who saved us and we honor all those who gave that last full measure to secure for us all the things we enjoy in this nation.

Someday we will find ourselves at the end of our lives looking back, and we will ask ourselves what it was all for. At that moment, we will all want to recall a life of service to something larger than ourselves, to children who needed our teaching and our example of service, to people whom we gave a hand up in time of need, to friends and colleagues whom we comforted in times of sorrow, lives with whom we shared the many physical and spiritual blessings that have been bestowed on us. If we live that life of service, we will have fulfilled the challenge of the Savior when he said, “Whatever you did for one of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Matt. 25:40).

So on Memorial Day, and every day, we need to ask ourselves, for what shall we live? How are we doing at fulfilling not just the ideals of our American forefathers but those universal values set in place by the one who made us in his image, who sent his only begotten son to secure our salvation, the one who “created us in him to do good works?”

Read it all.

Many of the same values that our nation hopes to nurture and the traits military members are challenged to embody are consistent with those perfectly modeled for us by our Savior.

He was the quintessential example of service and sacrifice #MemorialDayhttps://t.co/i0jn4yZgyO

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) May 27, 2019

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Read it all.

From the farms of upstate to the tenements of Brooklyn & Harlem, New York men have served their country. This "Fallen Soldiers' Flag Garden" commemorates the 100,000 men who have given their lives, going back to the Revolution. Madison Square Park. #MemorialDay pic.twitter.com/wCQTzQw9Ku

— Regina D (@friendofedmund) May 27, 2019

At Vet Centers across the U.S., part of the federal Veterans Administration, combat veterans and their families can get help through readjustment counseling, talk-therapy and activities. NBC’s Gabe Gutierrez travels to Spokane, Washington, where grateful service members say therapist Dave Baird changed their lives.

Let us remember the men & women who have given everything to the cause of freedom: https://t.co/hUeQfaSejH #HonorThem pic.twitter.com/ORMcP80ro0

— U.S. Dept of Defense (@DeptofDefense) May 28, 2017

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

–Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)

In thanksgiving for all those who gave their lives for this country in years past, and for those who continue to serve; KSH.

P.S. The circumstances which led to this remarkable poem are well worth remembering:

It is a lasting legacy of the terrible battle in the Ypres salient in the spring of 1915 and to the war in general. McCrea had spent seventeen days treating injured men — Canadians, British, French, and Germans in the Ypres salient. McCrae later wrote: “I wish I could embody on paper some of the varied sensations of that seventeen days… Seventeen days of Hades! At the end of the first day if anyone had told us we had to spend seventeen days there, we would have folded our hands and said it could not have been done.” The next day McCrae witnessed the burial of a good friend, Lieut. Alexis Helmer. Later that day, sitting on the back of an ambulance parked near the field dressing station, McCrea composed the poem. A young NCO, delivering mail, watched him write it. When McCrae finished writing, he took his mail from the soldier and, without saying a word, handed his pad to the Sergeant-major. Cyril Allinson was moved by what he read: “The poem was exactly an exact description of the scene in front of us both. He used the word blow in that line because the poppies actually were being blown that morning by a gentle east wind. It never occurred to me at that time that it would ever be published. It seemed to me just an exact description of the scene.” Colonel McCrae was dissatisfied with the poem, and tossed it away. A fellow officer retrieved it and sent it to newspapers in England. The Spectator, in London, rejected it, but Punch published it on 8 December 1915. For his contributions as a surgeon, the main street in Wimereaux is named “Rue McCrae”.

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, in whose hands are the living and the dead: We give thee thanks for all thy servants who have laid down their lives in the service of our country. Grant to them thy mercy and the light of thy presence; and give us such a lively sense of thy righteous will, that the work which thou hast begun in them may be perfected; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord. Amen.

We honor the fallen this #MemorialDay and thank them for making the ultimate sacrifice for our country. #HonorThem pic.twitter.com/aZGhpPQZ0k

— U.S. Dept of Defense (@DeptofDefense) May 27, 2019

Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou who leadest Joseph like a flock! Thou who art enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth before E’phraim and Benjamin and Manas’seh! Stir up thy might, and come to save us!

–Psalm 80:1-2