Today marks the 11th of November where we as a nation recognize our veterans who have served this great country. We are blessed. We live in a nation abounding in freedom and abundance. As we walk around our neighborhoods, exchange political views around the water cooler and attend our places of worship on Sunday mornings it is easy to fall into routine and not connect freedom with cost. Men and women are stationed around the globe protecting, serving and sacrificing. I am thankful to live in such a great country.
I can close my eyes and flashback to far corners of the globe where oppression and fear drive their citizens. From perusing the markets of Minsk, Belarus to hopping buses along the coast of the Sinai of Egypt it is life altering to engage in everyday life with people who have endured political, religious and economical tempests that we can only imagine through our television sets in the warmth and comforts of our homes. The summer before my junior year of college I spent in Minsk, Belarus. From the moment we rolled into the dilapidated airport in Minsk that was lined with soldiers carrying M-16s to enduring a 24 hour train ride from Russia to Poland where customs officials raided our small train compartments in search of possible contraband my eyes were abruptly opened to a whole new realm of reality.
When going about the daily grind it's easy to lose grasp of what the cost has been (and continues to be) to allow us the freedoms and liberties that others across the globe do not have. We are blessed. I am thankful for those in uniform. I still get goosebumps thinking of the 1st time I heard the national anthem after my stint in Belarus. Standing in Yankees Stadium among a few thousand fans I choked back tears listening to the words and connecting the meaning with the flag that waved above. Freedom is not free and we must never forget that.
Today I also struggle with the strange reality that my little sister would have been 29 today. Hard to imagine Shana at 29. But in the midst of all the ups and downs and in betweens of life I thank God for each chapter of the life I have lead. I have come to the reality that it is not my job to figure out or ask the 'whys' in the different stages of my life or that of others; all that provokes is sadness, frustration and potentially anger. There is a reason, a purpose and a season for everything. I am thankful for my today and am unsure of how many tomorrows that I will have, but each is a journey unto itself. The truth is that life, indeed, is not about the years lived, but instead the moments that take our breaths away.
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