May 28th is Memorial Day in the United States.  Over the years, it has become the day set aside to honor our fallen warriors and those veterans who have crossed over.

If you are outside the United States,  feel free to join in this one by honoring your own fallen warriors and veterans.

This year will be the first Memorial Day in many years that I see in a positive light.  Most Memorial Day celebrations that I've seen in the past consisted mostly of bigwigs utttering insincerities - and then proceeding to talk out of the other side of their mouth once the speech was over.  But this year is different.

For the first time in the history of the United States, memorial markers with Pentacles as the symbol of faith are being dedicated.  Some replace blank markers.  Others mark graves which went unmarked until there was an appropriate marker.  Some might be new.  It took a fight in court to make it happen. 

There is more to fight for, but this is the time to celebrate what has been won for those among us who stepped forward to answer their country's call.

 

Forgiveness.  If you went to a Christian Sunday school, the teacher probably said much about forgiveness.  Sometimes, the lesson on forgiveness sounded like I was supposed to become everyone's doormat - and that I was supposed to forgive no matter what.

I had a couple of opportunities to visit this subject in the last few days.  One came from someone I had not heard from in many years.  This person offered an apology for a hurt that I had received (and it still ached after all this time).  Given the circumstances, I was able to learn just how good it can feel to forgive and have an old hurt go away. 

And then there was another.  I had just gotten done telling a friend that now that we're offering rituals via podcast, Temple of Gaia now offers everything Jerry Falwell does except the hatred and bigotry.  And then I see the news that Jerry Falwell died.  Do I forgive that man, the one who claimed that Pagans, gays and liberals were to blame for 9/11? 

 

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News:  Three bulletins concerning our victory in the Veteran Pentacle Quest, and how the victory is manifesting itself.  Celebrations are being arranged and scheduled.

 

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Coming Soon: Next Week is Memorial Day Weekend.  Expect something special.  

 

It occurs to me that I've been saying that Temple of Gaia wanted to offer its members anything they'd expect to find in any other church, but in the past year this podcast has been me flapping my jaws.  So with this one, I'm adding something different.

A church should have a chapel that is available at any time, and now ours can be found at http://www.groveunion.templeofgaiainc.org/chapel_courtyard.htm.  If you want, go into the sanctuary while you enjoy this podcast, and if you want, you can join me in this celebration.

This has been in preparation for some time, and finally I decided I might as well try, and see how it goes.  Jerry Falwell has his Sunday services on TV, the local Catholic church has a Mass on TV and/or radio for those who can't go to church, so why not a try in that direction for Wiccans and Pagans?

Next week will be a show in the usual format.  But for right now, let's celebrate this, and see how this goes.

 

We won!  If you visit Circle Sanctuary's web site at http://www.circlesanctuary.org/liberty/veteranpentacle/ you can see photographs of the markers for Jerome Birnbaum and Patrick Stewart - freshly arrived at Circle Sanctuary, and still in their shipping containers.

Being right is a very good thing.  Agreement is also very nice.  But, there is definitely something that must be said for fulfillment - and that's what those pictures show.  It has come to pass.

What next? 

We've won one battle, but we have more to come.  And that's only talking about battles.  There's more to do than just fight.

What do we do now?

Perhaps there are some ideas!