In the face of recent calamitous events, my heart and mind are numb to the violence and brutality of all that is occurring in our country and the world.  The fact that the politicians, religious, and business leaders continue to send their condolences to families of the victims, while doing absolutely nothing to remedy the problem, is a testament to how indifferent they really are.
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The following is an excerpt of the page on Memorial Day, from my book: Practicing From the Heart in the Age of Technology. Perhaps we should make this, a day to remember the victims of broken societies as well.
 
 
Memorial Day is when we remember those who gave their lives to defend our country.  It is noteworthy that a year after the end of the Civil War, in April 1866, four women of Columbus, Mississippi gathered together to decorate the graves of the Confederate soldiers buried in their town. They also felt moved to honor the Union soldiers buried there and to note the grief of their families by decorating their graves as well. The story of their gesture of humanity and reconciliation is now told and retold in Mississippi as being the occasion of the original Memorial Day.
 
Another heart-warming Memorial Day story is that of the Vietnam Veterans Peace and Brotherhood Chapel in the mountains north of Angel Fire, New Mexico.
Following the death of their son, U.S. Marine Corps First Lieutenant Victor David Westphall III, Jeanne and Dr. Victor Westphall decided to build a memorial in his honor and the fifteen men that died with him near Con Thien, South Vietnam on May 22, 1968, and the Vietnam Veterans Peace and Brotherhood Chapel in Angel Fire, New Mexico was erected. The Chapel was dedicated on May 22, 1971, the 3rd anniversary of the death of their son. It was the first major memorial created to honor the veterans of the Vietnam War and inspired the establishment of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., which was completed ten years later in 1982.
 
In circa 1982, a group of veterans and motorcycle enthusiasts made a pilgrimage to the site to honor their fallen comrades and to visit the one of a kind memorial. Somehow the word got out in that era of no internet and many more made the trip the next year and every year since, so that the 2018’s Memorial Day event (the last big event before the Covid pandemic) attracted some 20,000 to Angel Fire, New Mexico.
 
Copyright © 2021. Used with permission of TH PULSE, LLC.

Dressed in your best, you wait. Pressed gowns adorn anxious bodies, caps on, tassels hanging. 
It's graduation and expectation day. 
Happy that school is over, anxious for what now?
It seems that you have spent your entire life working toward this day, this place, this time.
To get this permission, this license, this authorization to claim your place in this world.
 
And the world is waiting for you, with its hand out.
To take that which you have worked so hard to achieve.
Do you really owe anyone anything?
After all, you did all the work.  All the learning, the proving of your worth.
Isn't that what this day is all about?
 
The world awaits you, try all of it for size!
It is said that a person is born twice,
Once to the parents who bore him/her
And once to the community, he/she chooses to live in.
Find the part of the world that fits you best
For today is truly the first day of the rest of your life!
Chose wisely!
 
Accept your diploma, turn the tassel on your cap
Toss it up in the air with a shout.
Go forth and make your mark!
Make it a good mark, a mark,
Worth remembering!
 
 
Congratulations! As a healthcare provider, you are needed all around the world. Consider volunteering for a short time with many International Organizations such, as Doctors Without Borders, Red Cross, Peace Corps, The Addis Clinic, and many others. You can find a link to many of them on our website.
You will find the experience life changing beyond anything you can imagine and lessons that will help you for the rest of your professional life - I promise!
 
Reza Ghadimi

Spring,
she is a teaser!
With her tormenting winds, she plays with man and nature alike.
Showing a cleavage of summer and uplifted wind blown skirt, she
excites and arouses the world with fantasies of pleasure of the months
yet to come.

Winter hangs on to her flowing skirt as she flirts with the sun and sky.
Every peek of the sun brings a warmth to the coldness of plant and animal alike.
And with every rise in temperature, blades of grass peek through the
snow and buds open on the trees as they dance back and forth
to the tempo of the wind.

After every use, I clean the fire stove in anticipation of the coming
warm days only having to run back into the forest in search of scraps
of wood to make one more fire, and watch her giggle and tease by
blowing snowflakes into my face.

It is May and there is ice on the pond.  The lilacs spread their aroma through
the snow, and apple blossoms shiver and smile with every blow of the wind.
I too, play hide and seek with my winter and summer clothes as I wait
for her to stop her teasing games, and in anticipation of the coming
summer, I open the windows a tad more.

Reza Ghadimi
Spring 2022