Authentic Compassion

Showing posts with label veterans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label veterans. Show all posts

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Live and Learn - in a good way

A video on youtube is being circulated through emails - while we are cautious about viral videos especially distributed via the internet - well this one seems to check out. I don't believe I have EVER heard the additional verses to our national anthem. The slight mistake made by the gentleman (not the second verse but the fourth verse) doesn't diminish the dignity of his statement. No I'm not starting a political discussion. I will close comments on my blog for a while as a preventative measure because I've seen some of the comments left on other sites by those who don't believe in free speech (well they believe in their rights but don't respect the rights of others). Whoever chooses to read please take time to digest the concepts.
Bless y'all - it is good Buhlaland is in the land of the free and the home of the willing to learn.




O! say can you see by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
’Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation.
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust;”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Monday, May 30, 2011

Memorial Day 2011





Beautiful skies over Buhlaland this morning - a bird soaring in the wind. We are grateful for the sacrifice of those who serve and served our country in the military and the ministry.

Skies can be cloudy, windy - almost stormy but bring beautiful days


"Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow,
for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own."

We frequently think of and quote this scripture from Matthew - not as a "oh woe is me" but a "praise our gracious Father God - today is all we know and can handle". We do know the One who knows tomorrow, gives us the strength one day at a time. Still rough going in our lives, health is a precious commodity - healthy body, mind and spirit - the trifecta of life.


Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Veteran's Day


Photo by Michael Maggs, Wikimedia Commons

In Flanders Fields
by John McCrae, May 1915
In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields.Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep,though poppies grow In Flanders fields.



I live with a Vietnam Vet and my father was in the military during WWII and the Korean Conflict. My cousin is a military chaplain who has done a couple of tours in the Middle East and several other cousins are veterans. Veterans - the people heroic enough to throw up with fear but still do their job to defend freedom. Men and women have certainly served honorably, people who leave their homes and family to do something unimaginable - be called to possibly sacrifice your life for the good of others. The poem about Flanders Field should admonish the leaders of our country and all others.
Thank you to veterans around the world and their families.
This video is God Bless America - but we know brave people all over the world sacrifice for freedom.
Enough from me -