The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.
– Albert Einstein
Memorial Day began in the 1860s as a time to decorate soldiers’ graves. This weekend, while enjoying summer’s first barbecue, the sales and permission to start wearing white clothes, remember that ‘holiday’ originally meant holy-day, a sacred and consecrated time.
Wakeup World suggests that we need time and space to “to experience a depth, richness, and sense of meaning that usually escapes us in fast-paced everyday life.” Read more. Everything Soulful lists four ways to create sacred space, including clearing clutter and adding aromatic oils. Read more.
Most important, holidays can involve slowing the busy-ness long enough to simply be, to allow time to gaze at the stars, flowers, a lake, birds in flight,, flags in a cemetery and ask, “Why?”
Blessings & best wishes.
Featured Video
 This Memorial Day Weekend’s Featured Video is from PBS Crafts in America. Here see the rare artistry of saddler-leather smith Eugene Burks, Jr and the exquisite care [including painting the horses’ hooves] provided by the U.S. Army Caisson Platoon. [09:27] |
IMAGE: © Can Stock Photo / GeorgeJmclittle
The Black Folk Who Started Memorial Day
Several dozen organizations claim to have started Memorial Day, by laying flowers on the graves soldiers who died during the Civil War. Women in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania began decorating graves in 1864, In 1866, the women of Columbus, Mississippi decorated the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers, understanding that all the men had families where they were sons, fathers and brothers.
But May 1, 1865 can stand as “The First Decoration [Memorial] Day.” To honor 257 Union soldiers who died fighting to end enslavement, Black people of Charleston, SC dug bodies from a mass grave and labored for two weeks to provide decent burials, commemorated with a parade of 10,000, led by 2,800 Black children.
You must acknowledge problems to fix them. – Dr. Phil
- HISTORY CHANNEL “Tulsa Burning,” broadcast Sunday May 30, 8 E/7C. Preview
- PBS-HDTV, “Tulsa, The Fire and The Forgotten,” broadcast Monday, May 31, 9pm ET Preview
- NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL, “Rise Again, Tulsa and The Red Summer,” broadcast June 18, 9pm Eastern Time Preview
