Sometimes I wonder why it is hard to remember the privileges that I live with each day. Remembrance day is fortunately not one of those days, our culture has decided it is important enough to remember, at least once a year, that we’re showered with blessings. I felt this even more today than I would say I have for the remembrance days of the last decade or so. We are grateful for those who made a sacrifice so that we don’t have to. Remembrance day reminds me to enjoy the things I love. Take hope, not sadness, from this day – the opportunity to live with freedom is empty when we refuse to seize the day.

Would it be easier to live with appreciation if we lived in the shadow of these sacrifices? I’m not sure. If we decide to be aware I don’t think it matters if we ride our bikes through Flanders or Fort Saskatchewan, over the cobbles of the Kemmelberg or the hills by Kapasiwin, or whether we battle headwinds in Dieppe or Devon. The choice to live lives that make the sacrifices of those that died count is ours. It’s ours whether we live on the battlegrounds of Europe & Afghanistan, or live in a nation blessed with the freedom that was fought for both generations ago and today. For me Remembrance Day 2009 was a Carpe Diem kind of day.