Last night I attended the annual Holocaust Remembrance Service at our local temple. Afterwards, I went through old photographs I took during our visit to Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany. I also ran across this Ten Things of Thankful post I wrote shortly after that visit and decided it was worth a second look.
Ten things the Europeans reminded me for which I am grateful…
SUVs and huge club-cab vehicles are a choice, not a necessity.
Water should be preserved.
(Run off from the mountain is captured in Salzburg, Austria.)
A person should walk—for his or her own good as well as the planet’s.
Beauty all around us improves life.
(Konstanz, Germany)
You make yourself rich, by keeping your needs few. (Apologies to Thoreau who said this better.)
(Sweet little home amid multi-storied buildings in Lindau, Germany)
Honor those who have gone before you.
(Every grave we saw in Germany and Austria was immaculately kept no matter its age.)
Laugh much.
(Top of a carousel at the Christmas market in Friedrichshaffen, Germany)
Celebrate what you have.
(Scene on the famed Glockenspiel of Munich depicting a dance celebrating the survival of those who made it through a dread disease that devastated the city.)
Do not let the past define you.
(Dachau, Germany Concentration Camp)
Make your faith known.
(Church in Liechtenstein)
Prayer from last night's memorial service...
Fully Compassionate God on high:
To our six million brothers and sisters murdered because they were Jews,
grant clear and certain rest with You
in the lofty heights of the sacred and pure
whose brightness shines like the very glow of heaven.
Source of mercy:
Forever enfold them in the embrace of Your wings;
secure their souls in eternity.
Adonai: they are Yours. They will rest in peace.
Amen
