Before the grills are lit and the flags are hung, there is a moment worth pausing for.

Memorial Day is not a celebration of summer. It is a day of sacred remembrance — set aside to honor the men and women who gave everything, including the future they would never see, so that we could have the freedom to live ours. It deserves more than a long weekend. It deserves our full and conscious attention.

This year, I want to invite you to take that attention outside.

The Gift of the Open Air

There is something profoundly fitting about honoring the fallen by stepping into the freedom they secured for us. The freedom to walk out our front doors. To feel sun on our faces. To move our bodies.
Science confirms what our bodies already know: time in nature heals us. Research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that even a single walk in a natural setting significantly reduces rumination and decreases activity in the parts of the brain associated with anxiety and depression (Bratman et al., 2015). Nature does not just lift our spirits. It rewires them.
But this weekend, I want to suggest something beyond the physical benefit. I want to suggest that when we walk outside, we walk with intention — and that we offer that walk, consciously and lovingly, to those who cannot take it with us.

What Is Loving Kindness?

Loving kindness meditation — known in the Buddhist tradition as metta — is the deliberate cultivation of goodwill, directed first toward ourselves, then outward in expanding circles toward others, toward those we have lost, and ultimately toward all beings everywhere.
Dr. Barbara Fredrickson’s research has demonstrated that this practice measurably increases positive emotions, life satisfaction, and social connection while decreasing symptoms of depression and illness (Fredrickson et al., 2008). It is not a passive or sentimental exercise. It is a rigorous training of the heart. And it is most powerful, I have found, when the body is moving.

A Loving Kindness Walk for Memorial Day
This practice requires nothing but a willingness to be present and a place to walk. Leave the earbuds at home. Bring only yourself.
Before you step outside, stand at your door and take three slow breaths.

Set a simple intention: I am walking in gratitude. I am walking in honor.

As you begin to move, bring awareness to your body. Feel the ground beneath your feet. Notice the quiet miracle of a body that carries you forward. Many bodies were spent so that yours could move freely today.

In the first few minutes, direct loving kindness toward yourself. With each step, offer silently:

May I be well. May I be at peace. May I be free from suffering.
Think of someone you love. With each step, offer:
May you be well. May you be at peace. May you be free from suffering
Now bring to mind those who have lost their lives to war
May you be honored. May you be remembered. May your sacrifice never be forgotten.
expand outward to all beings
May you be well. May you be at peace. May you be free from suffering.
Take three deep breaths. Be at peace.

A Closing Thought

Freedom is not a given. It is a gift — purchased at extraordinary cost by ordinary people who chose something larger than themselves. The least we can offer in return is to live fully inside it. To move our bodies through open air with intention. To tend to our own wellbeing as an act of honor rather than indulgence. To choose joy, choose peace, choose presence — not just on holidays, but on all the unremarkable Tuesdays in between.

Walk this weekend. Walk slowly. Walk with your whole heart.
And as you go — remember them.

References
Bratman, G. N., Hamilton, J. P., Hahn, K. S., Daily, G. C., & Gross, J. J. (2015). Nature experience reduces rumination and subgenual prefrontal cortex activation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(28), 8567–8572.
Fredrickson, B. L., Cohn, M. A., Coffey, K. A., Pek, J., & Finkel, S. M. (2008). Open hearts build lives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(5), 1045–1062.

Recommended Reading – Amazon Affiliate
• Loving-Kindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness — Sharon Salzberg
• Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder — Dacher Keltner
• The Nature Fix — Florence Williams
• Man’s Search for Meaning — Viktor Frankl