A Few Drops of Sweat

Our local Veterans' Memorial Park here in Springfield, Georgia, is approximately one mile from our home. This park is dedicated to those local men and women who have courageously served in all the branches of the United States military.

As our tradition is on various patriotic holidays, my husband has our family take the fifteen-to-twenty minutes’ stroll through the park in honor of our veterans. On one patriotic holiday, the temperature was in the mid-to-upper 90's, but we still drove to visit the park on that very warm day.

There is a semi-circle Wall of Remembrance at the park. On this sturdy wall are the names of the county residents that served in the past wars of our country… the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Vietnam war, the Korean war, and the Iraqi Enduring Freedom War. After looking at the wall of remembrance, we proceeded to look at the various flags representing each branch of our military. There, flying higher than the military flags, was our own Stars and Stripes… Old Glory.

We next strolled past the black-and-white POW flag, which flies in honor of those noble soldiers who were held in captivity as a prisoner-of-war on foreign soil. As we took that patriotic-induced walk over the square footage of the veteran's park that hot day, our faces were beaded with sweat. As we headed back to our vehicle to leave the park, my husband made an extremely profound statement. He said, “A few drops of sweat to remember our fallen soldiers is a small price to pay when they shed drops of blood for our freedom.” Well spoken!

As the heartfelt saying goes, “Freedom is not free!” Thank You, God, for the selfless sacrifices of our military.