Days like today

Days like today are the kind that one pictures when thinking about lazy summer days – the sun is shining, there is a soft breeze blowing and the smell of fresh cut grass, which I happen to love, is drifting in the air. 

Days like today, I just want to lie under a tree with a glass of lemonade and a good book. Days like today, however, are about so much more. Today is not just about getting a good tan or finishing that exciting chapter in my book. Today is about remembering my grandfather and my great uncles who gave so many years of their lives to serving this country. Today is about realizing how wonderful it is to be able to sit under a tree and read a book in a free country.

I cannot understand how people can look at pictures, walk through memorials and listen to stories about brave men and women giving their lives so we can live ours freely and not feel pride. Every time I think of my grandfather, who was a rear admiral in the Navy, and about my great uncles, some of who were POW's, I get an overwhelming feeling of pride. Not only the fact that they fought to ensure a better future for their family brings pride, but also the fact that they fought to ensure a better future for strangers, for their fellow Americans, brings pride.

Today, instead of just enjoying the good weather, we also remember the fallen. We remember those who have given their lives to protect this country. We remember and thank not only the family members, but also the strangers who have put aside a normal life of lemonade and reading books under trees to give us all something that is worth fighting for.    

They fell, but o'er their glorious grave
Floats free the banner of the cause they died to save.
~Francis Marion Crawford

My big fat Greek family

The impact that one person can make on a family can be incredible. I saw this in action this past weekend as I celebrated my great aunt’s 90th birthday. I was not celebrating alone, however. The side of the family that my great aunt belongs to is Greek, so as you can imagine, I was celebrating with more than 50 family members!

It was fascinating to look out across the room and watch a sea of people that I lovingly call my big fat Greek family celebrate together. Some people I was meeting for the first time, while others I had only met once or twice before this party. The part that fascinated me the most was the fact that I have a large number of family members that I know absolutely nothing about. And to think that they all came from just one young girl’s decision to sail across the ocean from Greece to America.

It kind of scares me to think how our decisions impact those around us, even those who aren’t in our lives at the present moment. If my great grandmother had not gotten on that boat, then I never would have been able to enjoy the pleasures of baklava, Greek dancing or loud Greek relatives.

As I watched everyone throughout the party visiting, laughing, dancing and eating, I thought of how much courage my great grandmother must have had to venture out at the age of 14 to a place that was completely foreign to her. I was wondering if I would have that same courage. Would I be able to leave my family and start an adventure in a place that I really know nothing about?

And then I thought maybe I don’t have to know if I would have the courage. Maybe I just have to learn from her and from my great aunts and uncles who carried on her legacy. We spend too much time wondering if we have what it takes. If we were in such and such a position, would we have the courage and stamina to do what that person did?

But I think we have it all wrong. The most rewarding thing that we can do is to learn from the courage and the decisions that were made before us in order to strengthen our own decisions.

Whenever I think of people like my great grandmother, I feel inadequate, because I picture myself not being strong enough if I were ever in their position. But that is not the impact that they wanted to leave us. I think that my great grandmother would rather have me learn to be courageous in my own ways instead of wondering if I would have the courage to do what she did.

This past weekend, I saw just how many people have learned from this courage. Just the fact that we were celebrating a 90th birthday proves how my great grandmother’s dedication and perseverance has trickled down throughout the rest of her family. That and her love for koulourakia!

Whispers and knocks

There are things in life that I take for granted. Take keys, for instance. Have you ever thought about how much they add to the convenience of life?

If you want to really appreciate your keys, just do what Karen and I did the other morning: Lock yourself out of your dorm at 8:15 on a Sunday morning when nobody is awake to open the door for you. Oh, and you should also leave your phone inside your dorm so that you have no way of contacting the inside world.

Sunday morning, Karen and I helped our third roommate bring the last of her things out to her car. As we watched her drive away, we realized that we had just landed ourselves in a difficult predicament.

First we tried knocking on the front door, but to no avail. We then decided to knock on our friends’ window because we knew that someone in the room was awake, but there was no answer. The back door was a futile idea, as was looking in every single window for any sign of life. So we returned to our friends’ window.

I happen to know that their window is broken, so I thought we could just climb in the window. The worst that could happen would be that we would wake up our friend who was still sleeping. I slowly started to lift the screen, but before I could do anything else the blinds shot up and we saw our two friends, one at the window and the other cowering in the corner. Apparently, our sleeping friend had woken up to our whispers and knocks and thought we were murderers coming in through the window to kill her in her sleep.

Hearing it from her perspective, I can understand why she would be afraid of our whispers and knocks. She couldn’t really hear what we were saying through the window. She was afraid of what she might find if she opened the blinds. As humorous as this story is, I couldn’t help but think of how we do the same thing to God.

Now, I am in no way comparing Karen and myself to God! Maybe this is a bit of a stretch, but doesn’t God knock on the windows of our hearts only for us to be too scared to answer? We jump to the conclusion that something we are not prepared for is about to happen. That something is going to enter our lives that will hurt us or damage our lives in some way. We leave our blinds closed because we don’t want to see what is out there. If we just open the blinds, we’ll see that there is nothing to be afraid of.  God’s whispers are not meant to scare us, they are meant to cause us to respond to him. To open the blinds and let him inside our hearts.

Sunday morning I was taught two lessons. Both are critical life lessons and should be taken very seriously: Do not be afraid to open the blinds of my heart when God is whispering and knocking, and never forget to bring my key with me if I’m outside the dorm before 9:00 a.m.