In Honor of Independence Day

I've read a lot of supportive emails regarding the military. I appreciate each and every one. Being a military wife is not easy, but I have been abundantly blessed during my husband's career to rarely be separated from him...Anyway, this email arrived with a poem I have never seen before. I share it with you as I sit at home without my husband. Thankfully, by the time Independence Day comes, we will be reunited :) Bless you all, and please please please enjoy your freedom this weekend (responsibly, of course).


We must never forget who gets the credit for the freedoms we have, freedoms we should be eternally grateful to enjoy…

I watched the flag
Pass by one day,
It fluttered in the breeze.

A young Marine saluted it,
And then he stood at ease..

I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud,
With hair cut square and eyes alert
He'd stand out in any crowd.

I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil
How many mothers' tears?

How many pilots' planes shot down?
How many died at sea?

How many foxholes were soldiers' graves ?
No, freedom isn't free

I heard the sound of Taps one night,
When everything was still,
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.

I wondered just how many times
That Taps had meant 'Amen,'
When a flag had draped a coffin
Of a brother or a friend.

I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives.

I thought about a graveyard
At the bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington.
No, freedom isn't free.
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Please! Enjoy your freedom – that’s what every service member works for.