Hope.
Once again we are starting another week with headlines like a punch in the gut: “Another Mass Shooting!”
I want to cry. I want to throw up. I want to curl up in a ball with the curtains drawn and not leave my house. There is no rational reason for the violence we are watching unfold around us. How can we wake up each morning, stumble through our routines, make lunches for our children and head to work like any other Monday? Hope.
Saturday, just one day before 26 people were murdered in a mass shooting in a small town in Texas, several hundred people were gathered at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne for a flag ceremony in honor of our military members and their families. It’s an event called Operation: Flags For Vets. Thanks to Gold Star Father Paul Monti, twice a year we come together to place over 70,000 flags across the hillsides and fields of the cemetery.
It’s now Monday morning, and I am reflecting on the opening prayer my friend Amanda Braga-Tipton shared with us at the flag ceremony. I think it is just as important and inspirational in the wake of yesterday’s shooting as it was the day before as we gathered to show our patriotism and pride in our country. It’s about HOPE. It is not political and it is not angry. Amanda’s words are at the same time timely and timeless… and inspiring.
Although I was not able to catch Amanda’s entire speech and the audio isn’t perfect, I think it it worth the minute and a half it will take you to watch and listen. She talks about HOPE in a time when we probably need it the most.
Please click HERE for more pictures from Operation: Flags For Vets 2017
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About Cat Wilson
