Memorial Day

"It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived." ~General George S. Patton

In 1865, Henry C. Welles, a druggist in the village of Waterloo, NY, mentioned at a social gathering that honor should be shown to the patriotic dead of the Civil War by decorating their graves.

In the Spring of 1866, he again mentioned this subject to General John B. Murray, Seneca County Clerk. General Murray embraced the idea and a committee was formulated to plan a day devoted to honoring the dead.

Townspeople adopted the idea wholeheartedly. Wreaths, crosses and bouquets were made for each veteran's grave. The village was decorated with flags at half mast and draped with evergreen boughs and mourning black streamers.

On May 5, 1866, civic societies joined the procession to the three existing cemeteries and were led by veterans marching to martial music. At each cemetery there were impressive and lengthy services including speeches by General Murray and a local clergyman. The ceremonies were repeated on May 5, 1867.

The first official recognition of Memorial Day as such was issued by General John A. Logan, first commander of the Grand Army of the Republic. This was General Order No. 11 establishing "Decoration Day" as it was then known. The date of the order was May 5, 1868, exactly two years after Waterloo's first observance. That year Waterloo joined other communities in the nation by having their ceremony on May 30. (Story reprinted from Ancestry.com)

So what will you do today? You will relax, maybe go for a swim and grill out with family friends. But also take a few moments to remember those that have gone before you. Take a few moments to reflect.

Reflect Upon Your Life

"I read and walked for miles at night along the beach, writing bad blank verse and searching endlessly for someone wonderful who would step out of the darkness and change my life. It never crossed my mind that that person could be me." - Anna Quindlen

Your mind is a like a camera and all that you do in life. Every moment is being captured and stored like millions of pictures through your life time. It is a collective reflection of many different images and experiences.

As your life grows older, those memories become a full picture album that you review from time to time. Are these pictures that you are proud of? Are they ones that could be shared with others?



The picture of reflection comes from Alain Briot

Your life can be changed by you. If you look through the album of your memories, you can see where your life has been, what it has been like and where you want it to be. Reflection upon those images will give you the knowledge to change your life.

Take Time For Yourself

So many times we are 'running so fast' trying to accomplish all of our daily routines. From getting ready for work, the kids off to school, important tasks at work to the evening activities, it can a very full day. Mixed in with all of this ordinary ritual of your day are the 'problems' and the 'planning' that you encounter or need to think about.

These 'things' you need to think about are those that will help your life move forward. All of the other things going on are part of that but are mostly the routines of the day. To move your life forward, you have a need to clearly think about any problems in your life. You need to clearly think about the future of your life. This can be difficult in between getting a child on the bus and getting to the train station in time.

So what should you do? Plan to take time out each day to reflect. Take just seven minutes to do this from your busy schedule. Why seven minutes? It is an odd number that is easy to remember, it is a 'lucky' number in some beliefs. Seven corresponds to the seven days of the week, the seven planets, seven rungs of perfection, seven spheres of celestial stairs, the seven petals of the rose, the seven branches of the shaman's cosmic tree and so on.

Seven denotes the fullness of the planetary orders, the fullness of the energies and principles in spiritual order. Seven was the Ancient Egyptian symbol of eternal life, and symbolizes the dynamic perfection of a completed cycle. Seven conveys the fresh start after a cycle has been completed and of positive regeneration.

Okay, so I made my point about the number seven. There are many different reasons why I chose seven minutes, but mainly just to give you a time frame for thought and reflection. That's the only reason. As a person in this life, we do not have all of the answers. We can not fix everything on our own. But daily we need to stop and think about where we can find help.

Each of us need a few moments to see where we can find guidance and reflection. Whether this be spiritually, intellectually or even physically, it is okay to look to others for help if that is needed. It also allows you time to think about what the need might be.

Take seven minutes each day, reflect upon your life and start to move your life forward. You will begin to see things more clearly and your life will change.

7 Minutes

Coming up, the day before Christmas. I've taken the past week off to prepare for the holiday season. I have also been finishing up work for different customers before many take off for their own holiday.

In these final days of 2006, my family and I have been blessed. We in turn have taken our good fortune and passed it on to others. Since it has been seven days off from writing, consider it my '7 Minutes' of reflection that I've written about before.

The seven days have been busy and full of figuring out how to help others. It has also been a week of passing on to our children, family and friends. The whole holiday season is one that you can use to bless others which in turn will be returned to you in time.

There will be periodic writings over the next week or so as I prepare for the new year. It will give me time to continue reflection and focus on my wife and family. Take time yourself to do the same, please come back to read more. Tell those that you think may benefit to come back and read. It only takes seven minutes of your time, '7 Minutes' of reflection to take your life to a whole new level.