Tag: Memorial Day

May Memories and Milestones

This post “may” remind you of some milestones in your life. I share a couple of mine with you. Remember our mothers this month. And we memorialize those who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

May is a month for creating memories and remembering old ones.

Mother’s Day

In the United States, we observe Mother’s Day on the second Sunday in May. You may not be one, but we all have one, although, like me, yours may be deceased. (I know other nations have a similar day on a different date.)

Me with my mother when I graduated from medical school in 1978

You may have pleasant or not-so-pleasant memories of your mother; nurturing may not come easily to some women, possibly because they did not receive it. Sometimes when that happens, other women step in to bridge the gap. They deserve to be honored too.

Memories

May is a traditional month for proms, graduations, and weddings.

I married my husband in May. He had just graduated with his Master’s degree. I had finished three years of undergraduate studies to start medical school in August. We expected to live happily ever after. And we have, for the most part. But there were bumps along the road, as I explained in this post.

News, observances, history

Celebrating Women: Health and Wellness Month

Mother’s Day celebrates mothers. While many enjoy meaningful family gatherings, others may experience grief and loss, which should be acknowledged and addressed. May also marks National Women’s Health Month, focusing on women’s health needs. The Women’s Health Initiative remains a vital tool for understanding women’s unique health needs and the current administration has pledged support…

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Honoring Memorial Day: Understanding the Poppy Symbolism

Memorial Day is more than just the unofficial start of summer – it is a day to honor the brave men and women who died defending our freedom. The poppy, symbolizing this remembrance, is tied to the iconic war poem “In Flanders Fields” by Lt. Col. John McCrae, a Canadian physician deeply affected by the…

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Exploring the HEART of health

How does this post prompt you to think about May? What else comes to your mind about May?

How do you honor your memories, good and bad? What new memories do you want to create?

Thank you for reading this post. I strive to make them worth your time.

I share information and inspiration kindling transformation in your body, mind, and spirit.

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Watercress Words by Dr. Aletha

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Dr. Aletha

Wondering what to get Mom for Mother’s Day? Maybe some help with remembering her passwords?

RoboForm Password Manager. What I use to manage passwords.

John McCrae- Poet, Physician, Soldier

Observance days in the United States honor the military with the poppy symbolizing Memorial Day and Veterans’ Day. In World War I, the poppies of Flanders Fields inspired Dr. John McCrae’s famous poem. As a military physician, he was deeply affected by the war and wrote the iconic poem before his death in 1918.

In the United States,  we have several observance days that honor our military, past and present, living and deceased. A flower, the poppy, represents two of them- Memorial Day, in May, and Veterans’ Day, in November.

 

Why poppies?

In the battlefields of Belgium during World War I, poppies grew wild amid the ravages of war. The overturned soils of battle covered the poppy seeds,  allowing them to grow and forever serve as a reminder of the bloodshed of war.

The poppies, the wounded, and the dead were honored in a poem about the ravages of war.

A Canadian military physician, Lt. Col. John wrote the now-famous poem, In Flanders Fields.

armed forces emblems over a field of poppies
photo used compliments of the American Legion Auxiliary

Dr. John McCrae

 

Originally from Canada, Dr.McCrae was an English and math teacher, as well as a poet, before he attended medical school. He moved to England and was practicing there when World War I broke out, and he was called to serve as a brigade surgeon.

I suspect that as a physician, he was deeply pained in treating the wounded soldiers, and the loss of those he could not save.

“In April 1915, McCrae was stationed in the trenches near Ypres, Belgium, in an area known as Flanders, during the bloody Second Battle of Ypres.

In the midst of the tragic warfare, McCrae’s friend, twenty-two-year-old Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, was killed by artillery fire and buried in a makeshift grave.

The following day, McCrae, after seeing the field of makeshift graves blooming with wild poppies, wrote his famous poem “In Flanders Field,” which would be the second to last poem he would ever write.”

(from John McCrae at poets.org)

In Flanders Fields

by Dr. John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row, 
That mark our place, and in the sky, 
The larks, still bravely singing, fly, 
Scarce heard amid the guns below. 

We are the dead; short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, 
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields. 

Take up our quarrel with the foe! 
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.

This poem is in the public domain.

Soon after writing “In Flanders Fields,” McCrae was transferred to a hospital in France. Saddened and disillusioned by the war, McCrae found respite in writing letters and poetry, and wrote his final poem, “The Anxious Dead.”

In the summer of 1917, McCrae began suffering from severe asthma attacks and bronchitis. McCrae died of pneumonia and meningitis on January 28, 1918.

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Sharing the HEART of health

Thank you for reading this post. I strive to make them worth your time.

I share information and inspiration kindling transformation in your body, mind, and spirit.

You can follow this blog in two easy ways. One is to put your email address into the box below.

Another way is to follow me on Facebook, where I share new posts, timely topics, photos, and an occasional cartoon.

Watercress Words by Dr. Aletha

Dr. Aletha