My heart is full as I remember – Remembrance Day. And my heart is full as I consider – today – the news – wars, deaths due to toxic drug supply, intimate violence, racism, poverty, climate change, fear. Loss and grief are not just personal. We experience loss and we grieve individually, in community, nationally and globally.
Today I use the letters in the words Remembrance Day to reflect, express, share, and perhaps find my next step. I share not as an example of fine poetry, but as an example of reflection – with the hope that in reflecting together, we might find a step toward healing or helping, together. I was very much surprised at what I learned in the process.
Reflections on Remembrance Day
Remembering the past, the wars, the lives lost. Standing at Vimy Ridge in 2022.
Exasperated. We do not learn from the past, we do not learn kindness, we do not learn tolerance individually or globally.
Moaning with more news of killings by terrorists and killings in the name of war, and mass shootings…
Enough. Enough already!
Moaning with news of deaths due to toxic drug supply and a society where people feel the need to use and abuse.
Bring them home – if only we could bring them home, all of them, those lost, alone, tortured, tearful, traumatized people… bring them home. Feed, nourish and nurture them. And hope for healing. Home.
Remembering – those I have loved and lost – knowing that I would rather have loved and lost then never loved at all
Announcing – enough! Time to stop! Some conflicts have gone on for hundreds and thousands of years.
NO! NO MORE fighting – I was a child in the 60’s – “PEACE not WAR” “LOVE NOT HATE”
Canada – The sorrows and dysfunction in Canada… our collective grief – the losses experienced by our Indigenous peoples, and the ongoing grief.
Exhausted – and Eager – eager to find ways forward
Disgusted – and Desiring to make change
Aware – that I am just one person – and I feel there is so little that I can do
Yet – YET I AM ONE. One person can make a difference. What difference can I make?
Kath Murray, personal reflections
I feel that I came through fire – from a perspective of respect and gratitude, through anger, frustration and feeling ineffectual.
And I learned three things about myself. I learned about my intense desire for change. I became aware that I felt small, ‘just one person’ and what that meant to me. And then I looked within and clearly heard “I AM ONE PERSON!” A shift occurred from being ‘just one person’, to feeling “I AM ONE” and that I can make a difference.
My hope on this Remembrance Day is that people everywhere can find their strength in being ‘just one person’, and feel that they too, can make a difference.
