For those who have given.

 

“And I'm proud to be on this peaceful piece of property

I'm on sacred ground and I'm in the best of company

I'm thankful for those thankful for the things I've done

I can rest in peace

I'm one of the chosen ones

I made it to Arlington.

If you have ever walked around a cemetery, you will likely have mixed emotions. If you are just walking through it with no knowledge of anyone who is in there, it’s just ground with people buried six feet below. It’s actually interesting to read about their lives, and any statements last words written about them, but they are still strangers.

Next would be if this is an area where family members are laid to rest; you knew them and you hope and pray they are in fact, laying to rest in a better place—especially if they had passed of a horrific disease.

Then there is Arlington Cemetery. Here lies such notables as John F. Kennedy, William Howard Taft and more than 400,000 men and women who served their country and received some of the military’s highest honors. (Also, and this seems like the perfect place, POW’s are buried there.)

I have been to Arlington a few times. It’s certainly an experience you have to prepare for and be in the right mind set. One time, and this is a true story, I was witnessing the Changing of the Guard (the military guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier) and as we stood honoring the moment, a woman’s phone rang. Worse yet, she answered it and started to talk. Loud. We were horrified, but we were also silent trying not to break the respect this moment deserved. I am sure someone went up to her afterward and “had a discussion.”

We are a nation of millions but when you visit Arlington you realize we are all one. 

The photo above was taken when we laid my father-in-law to rest a few years ago. He was a military man through and through; I didn’t know him when he was in the military, but I heard stories from him and his family; today he is with 400,000 other soldiers resting and watching…all on a piece of property he now calls home.

Thanks for stopping by.