More Than a Sale Day

Monday is Memorial Day.  Its origins seem to be in the ladies of the South following the Civil War when they organized a day to remember those who’d fought for their community.  To help heal the country it was decided that the entire nation would remember those who fought and died for our country regardless of the side they fought for and gradually the tradition of decorating graves came to include all loved ones.  As a matter of fact, it came to be called Decoration Day in many communities including the one in the Missouri Ozarks where my father, Conrad R. Frieze, grew up.  This is a picture of the cemetery where some of my father's ashes are buried with his parents and grandparents.  I intend to have the rest put in Tahoma National Cemetery because there is no one left in Greenfield to even stay with if I want to visit the cemetery that is half way across the country from me.

I believe that those we love can come to us in dreams and are never far from us and I have reason to believe that applies to pets as well.  Yesterday a young friend of mine posted a blog about having had a dream about a beloved dog that passed a year or so ago.  In her dream the dog was everywhere she looked, swishing between her legs, running down the road she walked and only she could see her.  Her dream doesn’t surprise me a bit.

Last summer a most beloved cousin passed away.  On her birthday she came to her best friend in a dream.  Debra, who had been very sick and emaciated at the time of her passing looked well and healthy.  Her friend asked her how she liked heaven and she said, great!  I am so glad that Debra visited her friend and comforted that for sure she is out of pain and finally, finally feels well.

My own beloved grandmother came to me in a dream.  We were in an unfamiliar but homey kitchen.  We sat at the table there and had a lovely conversation.  I was so glad to see her!  Eventually I realized that I had to leave and that she could not.  I woke crying, but grateful that I’d had this encounter with someone so beloved to me.  Recently I discovered that a friend had the same sort of dream, including the kitchen, about her grandmother. I must say that I was glad to find someone else who’d had the same sort of visitation—or did we visit there?  No mind, it comforts me that Grandma is still thinking of me.

Memorial Day weekend is a great time to get together with family and friends, to eat summer food and have a good time, but somehow the true meaning of the day has been lost in vacationing, and Memorial Day sales.  Those in particular really make me mad.  Monday is not just a day off from work.  Take time to remember those who you loved and loved you.  They are not far off.