Lest we forget

Not just like any other day of the year, it is ANZAC Day today. Being so far from home I can't do many of the traditions I usually partake in but nothing is stopping me making a truck load of ANZAC cookies!

I would love to get into depth about what ANZAC Day is, but there is so much to tell. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, to read about its coming about go to http://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/ANZAC/ANZAC_tradition.htm

I do not even know what to write here, I just know I miss home, everything about it, and it's getting worse. Along with ANZAC being a big part of our history, my grandfather was an ANZAC. I got more involved with ANZAC Day when I started dating someone from the Military and also worked with the Military. The hours I spent polishing boots, pressing uniforms, shining medals (no it was not my work, I was a chef cook) I done it out of pride. I have no clue how to explain anything here as it is a deep thing in me, I do not know why I feel it, why I cry when I see the flag fall, why I cry when people lay wreaths, why do I blubber when I hear the bugel playing "The Last post" and the reading part of "For the Fallen" (It is known by other names) (by L Binyon)

They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the evening
we will remember them.

-- From the Anzac Day Service--

In the early hours of April 25, at various Shrines of Remembrance, cenotaphs and war memorials everywhere in Australia and New Zealand, there is a gathering of the men and women who have gone to war and returned, and with their families and friends gather for a dawn service that heralds the start of another Anzac Day. This is a day of remembrance , of the deaths and sufferings in war, the valor of fighting men and women, and the ever-present hope for the peoples of the world to live together in harmony and lasting peace. And, as every Anzac Day service recalls, "at the going down of the sun and in the evening we will remember them." This year I did not wear a poppy *starts fighting back tears* didn't go to a service, but oh yes I will have my minutes silence to remember!

Here go all my tears again *snif snif* enjoy the whole poem and...

....Lest we forget....

For The Fallen

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.