Yesterday, the community band of which I am a member, played at a decoration ceremony for veterans at a local cemetery. During the ceremony, someone read the well-known poem, In Flanders Fields, by Dr. John McCrae, who was a Lt. Col. in the Canadian Army.
I've heard the poem many times, but this time, for some reason, the last stanza really hit home:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
It knocks the wind right out of me.