We pause for Memorial Day, not to glorify war in any way, but to acknowledge the trauma that our fellow citizens have endured so that we don’t have to. We pause out of respect and to pray for healing.
This week I found myself reflecting on that personally at a dinner for my son on the occasion of his graduation from college.
On September 11^th, when Ian was a Senior in High School, he and fellow lacrosse teammate Todd Ward cut class and drove to the top of the parking deck at Overlook Hospital just in time to watch the second tower collapse. Ian was the only senior to join the Army right out of high school and Todd Ward would join the Army after college. Ian did reconnaissance in Afghanistan and Todd served with the Rangers in Iraq.
After Ian got out of the Army, he eventually moved back home and went to college in New York. At commencement, the Dean noted that he joined 70 other veterans in the class of 2014, the largest number since World War 2. A generation ago, we blamed our veterans for the inanities of the Vietnam war. Today we have the wisdom to blame our politicians and ourselves.
I let my son make reservations for dinner and he chose a steak restaurant on West Street, just a few blocks north of where the World Trade Towers used to stand. I looked down the street as we entered and remembered the way that it was all covered in ash in the weeks and months following the attacks, just reflecting on the trauma that day unleashed around our world and the decade of change that have passed since it happened.
Stepping inside the restaurant, I remembered the go-go Wall street days in the 90’s when bankers jammed these watering holes, making global sized deals with all the brash arrogance that made New Yorkers so confident that they were just bigger and better and that they lived in the center of the universe.
At some point after we clinked glasses and toasted to the graduate, I found myself reflecting on how we’ve come full circle. I said a silent prayer for my son and for all the soldiers that went through the trauma of our two wars in the past decade. I prayed that they would return to us because every soldier that I’ve known personally has suffered from PTSD and they are all permanently changed by what they have been through.
And I prayed for our beloved City, for the return of some of the brash arrogance that New Yorkers beamed when they were just being themselves before September 11^th. I prayed for normal. I prayed for home.
I hope you are able to simply enjoy the normal blessings of family and friends this weekend as we welcome the onset of the summer season. There could be no better way to honor the sacrifice that our vets have made on our behalf than to actualize normal home to the degree that you are able. Stop and give thanks for the peace that we know, for the love that we have lived, for the healing of our veterans and our country. 
This week, we welcome Rev. Rebecca Laird, who writes devotions for The Upper Room, among other things. She will speak on "Enfolded in Truth".