I looked in the face of Pilot Officer Norman MacLennan in a photo that has pride of place in my home office. It was last Friday morning – Remembrance Day. The photo was taken when he received his wings as a pilot in the RCAF in January, 1941. His last of only a few missions was June of 1941- he and his crew perished returning their damaged aircraft to England. He was 22.

I bear his name, a gift from my parents (he was my mother’s yongest brother). They lived fruitful lives more than 60 years after his ended. Yet they are all gone now and only live in my memory. Memory is a powerful thing – we all have friends or relatives who have lost this capacity through age and infirmity.

In remembering Uncle Norman that day I reflected on the hundreds of people who have “laid down their life” for me to enjoy the life I have today. Gratitude engulfed me with memories – many of them with your faces passing through the screen of memory.

Memory that inspires gratitude gives life- if it inspires regret, anger or recrimination it diminishes us.

A Prayer for Today

Circle us Lord
Keep love within
Keep hate without
Circle us, Lord, keep faith within, keep mistrust without
Circle us, Lord, keep light within, keep dark without