...a moment of silence

I have listened to stories my Grandfather has told about living in the war with sheer amazement, not being able to comprehend the emotion of it all. Imagine hearing an alarm go off in your city and having to go running through the streets to a special underground shelter...and then not making it into the shelter in time, (or just out right refusing to go). So you watch the glow of bombs that litter the night sky and listen to the whistle of the bombs soaring through the air, praying that you and your family will be spared. Then deciding to risk your life and the lives of your family members to try and escape. You travel with no more than the clothes on your back through the mountains and to the border of the neighboring country, where you may or may not be welcomed. To be accepted is life...a strange life in a strange culture with a language and customs you don't understand. A life of sacrifice and learning and not fitting in, being the outsider from an enemy country. But life nevertheless, a new beginning. Unfortunately there are hundreds of thousands of families who share this story.

These stories are all I know of war besides what we all see on tv and in the movies. Taking full advantage of all of the freedoms that I have been so blessed to enjoy has come with ease. Never having experienced war personally makes it very simple to go about my everyday life without even a thought to the sacrifices that have been made for me to live with the basic liberties that are my right as a human being. The privilege to love my God, speak what's on my heart, bear and raise my children with the values I hold dear, to be educated and work, to love and be loved.

So let us pause, share a moment of silence to remember all of the men, and women who have selflessly given their lives so that we may enjoy ours freely.