315/365 wordy Wednesday pauses...

for a moment of silence to remember those who have fought for something that they believed in and in too many cases have lost their lives in the process...Kaeden putting his poppy on the newspaper to match the one on the left side and to cover the advertisement.
When I was growing up my parents instilled in us the importance of respecting the men and women in the military. We always stopped what we were doing on the 11th day of the 11th month at the 11th hour, to take a moment to reflect and remember, no matter where we were or what we were doing.

I have been trying to make sure that I pass that onto my children. It doesn't mean that we go to an organized event every year (even though we have done so in the past) but more so that we take a moment to discuss the importance of today. That it is not just a day off but a day for us to pay our respects and take a moment of our day to remember those that have lost their lives in the fight for freedom.

When I grew up, we remembered men/women who had fought in battles long long ago. I understood that I owed it to these soldiers to show my respect and at the very least, on the day dedicated to them, to make sure that I stopped to remember their sacrifices but it was hard to feel connected as these soldiers lived and died in wars that occurred in times that we just read about in our history books.

Things are different, very different, today. Wars are not just held on foreign soil, sometimes it is brought to us. The other side plays dirty. Many times we are fighting a faceless enemy. We are not just fighting for our freedoms but also to secure basic rights and freedoms for other countries.

The soldiers are no longer strangers from a time "long ago" that we read about in history books. They are are neighbours, friends and co-workers. In the day of instant media and social networking, we quickly learn through the web, facebook etc...who these men and women are, who they have touched and what they believe in. It is now real time.

I have read many stories of soldiers who are currently serving, have served in the past or have lost their lives and in every soldier's story there are common threads:

~they truly believe in what they are doing

~that they are making a difference

~and in many cases that this was their calling, they just knew this is what they were meant to do.

Recently the war struck a little closer to home with the death of Sapper Steven Marshall who is the boyfriend of a family friend. I did not meet him but a quick read through the Facebook memorial page will tell you that many people were touched by him in his short 24 years. That, like the others he believed in what he was doing and that he was where he wanted to be, trying to make a difference.

So for him and the other 132 soldiers that have made the ultimate sacrifice during the current war in Afghanistan and to the thousands of others that have given their lives in creating a society of freedom I stop, close my eyes, whisper my thanks and remember.

I will give the last word to a fellow Flames fan, may he now rest in peace, Sapper Steven Marshall with this quote:

"People sleep peacefully in their beds at night, only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf" ~ Steven Marshall