Why Do I So Love Poppies?

Poppies are a flower of remembrance, honoring those who died in the First World War. My husband and I have been to France many times, and we’ve walked many of those battlefields. Poppies greeted those soldiers then, and they greet them still today. But poppies also have a deeper, much more personal meaning to me. They bloom from blood, from pain, and ask us to remember even as we move forward. I’ve had years that have taken everything from me, that have forced me to the lip of the abyss and made me question what I was willing to do and to withstand in order to live. Those poppies are a visible reminder that life comes back, that I came back, even from war-torn soil.