Ordinary Extra - D-Day Remembered

Ordinary Extra – June 6, 2023. D-Day Remembered.

“Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well-trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely…I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory! Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking” – General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander.

Hazy sun setting behind an American Flag in Dunbarton, NH. 6-6-23.

The morning was June 6th, 2023. I woke up already knowing that there was a weather alert for poor air quality in this area. Due to wildfires in Quebec. My daughter noticed how orange and hazy the morning sun looked even before school. My son noticed too, but he was sick and staying home from school.

It was just an early June Tuesday. But it was June 6th. 6-6-23. D-Day was 79 years ago, on 6-6-44. That was long before my time. But look at these quotes, just a few words among tens of thousands about that day. D-Day.

Here in 2023. I remembered the history as it has been told to me, as it has been written, and even recorded. Our home inhabited by a sick child, a Mom working in the home office, and me. Free to do as we please, within the laws of the land. But very much free.

I read many, many words. I remembered through the stories told and experiences shared. And my free day to look after my sick son, while my wife worked her job without skipping a beat from our home, all seemed very much tied to D-Day and other such days that we should remember.

The sun on its way toward the horizon. Bow, NH. 6-6-23.

Pride. Proud of all those people who while serving our country “… had looked at and smelled death all around them all day but never even dreamed of applying the term to themselves…” on that day (and many more) during WWII. I can’t even imagine those scenes, or facing that reality.

Thankful. Blessed. Noble undertaking, undertaken. A debt of gratitude to thousands upon thousands of brave souls.

After a full day, and a quick family dinner, toward the end of another June day, I took a ride. My wife joined me as we slowly drove a 15-mile loop to see the evening sky, the setting sun, and many, many deer. I have included a few pictures from our drive throughout this piece as a thank you for the freedoms we enjoy.

Setting sun. Field in Dunbarton, NH. 6-6-23.

“God almighty, in a few short hours we will be in battle with the enemy. We do not join battle afraid. We do not ask favours or indulgence but ask that, if you will, use us as your instrument for the right and an aid in returning peace to the world.” – Lt Col Robert L Wolverton, commanding officer of 3^rd battalion, 506^th PIR

“Lieutenant Welsh remembered walking around among the sleeping men, and thinking to himself that ‘they had looked at and smelled death all around them all day but never even dreamed of applying the term to themselves. They hadn’t come here to fear. They hadn’t come to die. They had come to win.'” –American historian Stephen E Ambrose, in his book ‘Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest’

Setting sun just a few seconds later as clouds conspire to cover the sun. All the shades of color darken just a bit. Dunbarton, NH. 6-6-23.

We live in an age where comparisons are being made 24/7 whether we know it or not. Social media, TV, Internet ads, and many more outlets bombard us all with image. Image as in, this is how the perfect product, or the perfect moment, or even any product in the perfect setting, can make life, well, pretty near perfect.

You know what I am talking about. Pictures of how awesome other people’s life is, at least that is how it is made to look. At some level we all get caught up in the “keeping up with the Joneses” mentality. And we think out loud or to ourselves, “Well, my yard, my vacation, my this, or our that doesn’t like nearly as good as theirs”.

So, I am here to spread some ordinary extra moments. These are things that happen in an average day in my little world. Some might resonate, some may not. But the point is, be happy and thankful for what you do have. And sometimes that might just be the ability to think, to breathe, to work, to love, to feel, and so on. There is beauty all around us.

Just an ordinary day with an ordinary extra moment, or two, mixed in.

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