Finding Flanders’ Fields

I’ve missed a couple of weeks of posting and I’ve got a good reason why that happened. I’ve been in the south of France, staying in small villages and fully enjoying the sights. I had wanted to go to Provence, France to see the lavender in bloom but the timing was a bit off so I had to settle for the red poppies as they were still blooming about everywhere we went.

Just outside of St. Martin du Bromes.

Overlooking Lac du la Sainte-Croix.

France is filled with bug loving flowers.

I am happy to be home, but have had an incredible vacation with family and friends. It is a wonderful way to travel and a great way to get to know each other better while in a relaxed environment. These poppies were planted in remembrance of the lives that were lost to war. It seems like we are always at war some place in the world. Sad really. The poppies are beautiful but what they symbolize is war and it’s casualties. It makes you stop and think about the sacrifices people have made to keep us from harms way.

As we traveled about, it was hard to miss the metal doors with peep-holes, the stone buildings with metal shutters, and the lack of children playing in the streets. When I was a child we had many freedoms, so many that we didn’t realize how very wonderful freedom was. Today is different from then. There are often days when I miss those yesterdays.  

 

 

 

 

The Important Things In Life

Red Poppy in the Sierra Nevada Mountains

A while ago, I wrote down a list of those things that I felt were important to remember as you move through life.  It was a bit like saying, “these are the things I believe in and I’d like to share them with you.”  Even when you think that you should remember those things most important to you, one can find that these ideas are not rapidly running around in your head 24/7.  I sent them to two of my nieces, with the hope that they would take them to heart upon graduating from high school and moving forward in their adult lives.  I knew that they might not look at them at all, let alone understand what it was I was trying to convey.  I am going to share these thoughts with you, one at a time, in my posts.  I hope that you find meaning in these thoughts as they relate to you; so here is my first thought…..

“Set goals in your life / if you have no goals, you will never achieve them.”

(Your goals don’t need to be huge, you can have tiny goals.  The point is to work toward achieving something.)

Please let me know if you have anything to share, as I can pass it on to others.  Have yourself a wonderful week.