Juneteenth. Realizing the significance of the day - and that it has finally received the appropriate official national recognition it deserves - I search for its meaning to me.
Do we take freedom for granted? I pause and consider the significance of realizing that you are free.
I am reminded of my mother’s story. After being restricted in the Lodz ghetto and incarcerated in Auschwitz, she was on a death march from Bergen-Belsen in the late winter and early spring of 1945. They, and their German captors, knew that the Allied forces were closing in as they marched to nowhere.
One morning my mother decided to stay in the hayloft where she had slept. She didn’t respond to the commands to regroup and continue the march. She explained that, if they came after her it would be no worse than continuing with them.
They went on without her. And, as she went in the opposite direction, she saw a German soldier coming toward her. She continued walking. As they passed without incident, she realized that she was free.
May we all grasp that realization on this Juneteenth.