It is so humbling to hear everyone on this Forum begin to appreciate what we have lost and the sadness is almost tangible. Certainly, the grieving will go on and, for the families, the pain will never truly fade.
But for the sake of those that have died serving their country, their countrymen, if not the free world, let us go 'onward and upward' and carry the empathy that we feel today on to tomorrow and each and everyday from now.
Often, we are all guilty of focusing on the unimportant - for example getting the hump with your 'other half' for something trivial or getting angry at someone at work for making a genuine small mistake, blasting off at the kids for making a racket, going 'purple-headed' at the less able drivers on the road, or even getting p!ssed at poor management decisions.
Sometimes it makes the loss of someone close to make us see that these little things are really unimportant. What does matter is people and our relationship with them. The people we love, live with and work with and to whom trust our lives - everyone. Therefore, it may be good to view things from a different angle.
See things from the other person's point of view, give them a chance to explain, forgive genuine mistakes, encourage those less able than ourselves rather than put them down - but most of all, remember that they have loved ones too and we all walk a tightrope off which can we fall ......at any time.
Let us try to do this a token of our gratitude to all have fallen in our name.