Several unexpected items inspired this week’s thoughts: Specifically, two opportunities to provide tributes for friends and a meaningful post on Facebook.
Although FB is a dubious way to spend time or energy, an acquaintance here in town shared the following exhortation (wording may not be exact but the meaning is): “If you’re eating, thank a farmer. If there’s food on your table, thank a trucker, and if you’re eating in peace, thank a war veteran.”
Both writing well-deserved tributes to friends and mulling over the FB exhortation, got me meditating a lot this week. (Just to make the process easier and even more meaningful, I did a lot of that musing down by the beach with a cup of Tim Hortons tea in hand.)
Again, I hesitated to write on this theme since it’s not a new one for me over this past year but the settings definitely were. Farmers have always epitomized, to me, the meaning of toil and dedication. Long hours, incredibly hard work and now, new expenses but I won’t comment on that.
My father was a long-distance trucker so I know about weeks spent away from home. To all those drivers who haul food and other goods across Canada and international borders, your long and lonely hours are appreciated.
When it comes to vets, I have no words to express my deep gratitude so I won’t even attempt to do that except to say, “Thank you from the depth of my being.”
Those tributes to friends were difficult only because I couldn’t think of enough kind things to say within a limited time and/or word count.
Much of my musing, however, involved deliberately trying to name those “unsung heroes” we too often forget.
“Lord, don’t let me forget those who work behind the scenes day after day.”
God bless you!
