Dying for democracy

Under a full “Flower Moon” the mailbox this lovely Summer morning held sobering reminders:

Yesterday, on June 4th, British prime minister Winston Churchill addressed the House of Commons. Some 338,000 Allied soldiers had just successfully been evacuated from Dunkirk, in northern France, as German troops advanced. Fighting fascism, Churchill warned his people that the war would be neither easy nor quick. But, he promised, “...we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be...we shall never surrender....” We might take this as our own mantra today as we face the insidious challenge of fascist ideology attempting to destroy democracy here in the U.S.

Thirty-four years ago yesterday in 1989, students left a message written on a wall in Tiananmen Square that said, "On June 4, 1989, the Chinese people shed their blood and died for democracy."

The challenge is real and never ending. Speak up.

...my voice becomes both a breath and a shout.

One prepares the way, the other

surrounds my lonliness with angels. – Rilke The Book of Hours

Beannacht / Blessing

. . . .

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.

by John O’Donohue from Echoes of Memory (Transworld Publishing, 2010)