quite a morning....

so we went to stand and block the protesters that were
spreading hate.

turns out that they couldn't get very close to the church.
which was way way way awesome.

it was all worked out and the biker guys had the protesters
covered. the rest of us were to line the road and just
be support.

the church provided a whole ton of small american flags to wave.

and there was a ton of people there to hold them.
it was so moving to see all the people who had showed up for this.

so there i stood for a couple of hours along the highway with
a flag.

it gave me a whole lotta time to think.

first of all, just holding the flag was a big deal for me.
if i could have chosen what we were all to hold, it would not
have been an american flag.

but i was there to support the family. so i held it.
and i thought a whole lot about it.
thankfully, it was made in america, and i felt a sense of
relief in that.

many many people had shirts on that said 'thanks' with the boy's
name on it.

it was just four days ago that i posted on veteran's day that
i have trouble with the 'thanks' part as the whole thing is so
darn complicated for me. and 'thanks' just hits me wrong.

again, i understood the sentiment and was glad to see the shirts,
even if i would have worded it differently. i was impressed with
the amount of them along the highway.

and again, it gave me a lot to think about.

i thought of war.
i thought of this kid who 'wanted to make a difference.'
i thought of our concepts of wanting to make differences,
and how they change over time.
i wondered how his family felt about that dream of his.
i thought of our culture and how this group i was standing in
was not your ivy league educated group and i wondered how many
ivy league educated marines there were.

i wondered if those boys walking by in uniform were scared
by all of this, or if it somehow made them feel more brave.

i thought of the protesters and wondered if they'd ever see
the pain that they spread.

and i thought of how amazing it was that there was this huge
response to that pain.

i watched mourners walk by fighting the tears, and my tears
fell with theirs.

i went to block out hate.
i went because no family who is mourning needs to be harassed
by hatred.

i ended up feeling like i walked into something that perhaps
i wasn't....a flag waving american.

and then......the police escort came down the highway with
the family following.

and the most incredible silence i have ever heard in my life
happened.

everyone got silent.

everyone.

and i knew that what i had walked into was something that
we all were.....love.

my tears fell as that silence echoed inside of me.

praying for peace, i held my flag and watched the family
drive by.