ANZAC, Oceans, Sunrise, Gratitude and Love

Blessed am I.

I live in a country where it is OK for me to go running alone before dawn, wearing minimal clothing… without fear.

I live by the beach, the climate is warm year-round. Barefoot, swimming, sun-kissed shoulders…these are routine but deeply felt and never taken for granted.

I am wealthy beyond measure. Connected to the world, loved by many and loving many more, able of body and mind, resilient, strong, alive.

My most favourite holiday of the year is this day, April 25th, ANZAC Day. While the dawn is something I experience almost every day, this dawn morning is treasured in my heart.

My daughter and I go to Surfers Paradise beach and gather with the crowds, in the dark, to honour the many who have died, or been hurt in mind and body, in the countless wars that have been a part of the building of this country I was blessed to be born into.

While I could easily have many conversations about the futility of war, its political and financial underpinnings, and all the seriously bad leadership decisions that have been made that cost lives, today is not that day.

Today is the day to remember strangers, ancestors, family, friends, loved ones…who have put their bodies and lives on the line.

Today is the day to remember that while there is much that seems wrong with the world, we are in a far, far better place than the one that put able-bodied young people onto distant battlefields to die a horrid death.

Today is the day to bow in gratitude.

Today is the day to keep love alive. When love leads, whether that be in business, relationships, in how we spend our money, in how we teach our children, or in how we forge our politics, then we have a chance to be more whole as individuals and communities… to be true leaders.

Love is hard. Love is risky. Yet in the end, it is all we live for.

Lest we forget.

Photo credit: Christine McDougall, Surfers Paradise Beach 2014.