Anzac Day 2015

For those of us spared the terrors of war, to be worthy of our dead,
is to remember them. It is to remember that they died, the men and
women of this community, in their thousands, in faraway lands,
interred in the ground upon which they perished.
It is to remember those who loved them; their fathers and mothers,
wives, children and friends. It is to remember that the pain in the
hearts of those who loved them, who lived after them, never healed;
the promise of their lives together, unfulfilled.
It is to remember that many who returned were also harmed, so that
they and their families continued to suffer. When we wish for peace
it is to remember that the lasting meaning of their suffering – their
warning to those who follow – remains unheeded so long as there
is war.
For while their service has ended – their battlefields covered over
with meadow, field and forest, jungle and desert sand – let us make
of their absence a powerful presence. May we forever hold them
in our minds, and the loved ones they left behind.

David Whish-Wilson