There are times in life when a single moment shakes you, captures your full attention and forces you to be completely immersed within it. Today that happened for me. It was, in some kind of way, a homecoming. A completion.
I’ve been fortunate to attend multiple services around the world over the past few years. Sydney, London and Gallipoli…but never Auckland. In the years I was living in New Zealand I was never made to attend services, only learning ‘the basics’ about the day at school. To me, the day was a public holiday…a day off work. This all changed in April 2013 when I traveled to Gallipoli.
I stood at Anzac Cove and felt the weight of that place pierce through my soul, I walked beside the empty trenches on the single road to Chunuk Bair and I’ve seen the hills of crosses for the soldiers that never got the chance to return home. Once you have felt the sacred weight of something that important, it is impossible to walk away the same. It will forever stay with you. You will forever be changed.
Today, standing on the edge of the Court of Honour, I was home. Standing together, united in remembrance, everything came full circle. I was not the same person that left Auckland seven years ago. I have seen the remnants of war, and I will be forever changed.
They shall not grow old, as we that are left to grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
Lest we forget.
