On a Foreign Shore

In honor of the 80th Anniversary of D-Day, an excerpt from my book, Stories of the Lost

We stand on a foreign shore surrounded by a thunderous, deafening noise. War is definitely hell. Men are screaming in agony and shadows of death can be felt and seen everywhere. You can smell it in the air. Corpses lie scattered, bloated, and rotting on the land.

We are somewhat in shock. The fear we feel is overpowered by the ferocious desire to fight and live through this hell.

In training they used words like ‘determination,’ ‘courage,’ and ‘sacrifice.’ Training is one thing but the reality of war is a different experience. Will I be able to rise to the challenge when faced with danger or will my fear overtake me?

Destruction surrounds us as we march. Do we march toward our death? Is God watching us and protecting us with his shield? Or has he abandoned us completely? Some say there is no God. There cannot be a God who allows death and destruction on this scale.

My thoughts move from God to those I left behind at home. If I return, will they listen to my stories of war? Will they understand all this? Will they understand the danger, death, sound, taste, feel, smell and horrors of war? They are not here standing in my shoes so doubt clouds my thoughts. How could they possibly comprehend all this? I have trouble processing this even as I stand here amidst the rubble and death.

So many thoughts race through my mind. I think of my parents, wife, siblings, children, and friends at home. Will I return unharmed, unchanged, and whole? Or will I sleep forever in this foreign soil.

Will I be among the lost?

If I am, who will tell my story?

And, will anyone listen?

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Explore Stories of the Lost and all my books at the Ancestral Souls Wisdom School.