Words from Warriors
I haven't made mention much of this milblog that we--Kat, CI Roller Dude, Phillipine Phil and Sgt. Grumpy have put together, so I thought I would. The intent of the blog is to provide different perspectives from those involved with or in our country's military community. Some of the posts are poignant, some are hilarious (check out one called 'Can I See Some ID?') and all these milfolk who write on it offer strong insight into the lives of vets and active duty military when they post. Make sure you also visit their blogs, too.
D is NOT getting deployed!!!
I am so stoked--but certainly not nearly as stoked as he is.
D, I'd buy you a huge fireworks display to celebrate, but there's the whole pesky permit thing! lol...
Congratulations, D, congratulations, brother!
The weather here is so miserable, wet and cold. I was thinking about our warriors so far away and how similar the weather has been there and how hard they are working and moving along with far less than we have here. Sometimes these folks go days without sleep when their duties demand it.
I know it's these folks' choice and it's part of the job, but it doesn't make me any less proud of what efforts they put in day in and day out and of the sacrifices their families make while they are away.
This is for D who is with his National Guard unit taking physicals and awaiting news of whether a third deployment will be asked of him.
This is for Sgt. Grumpy and all his fine Airborne folks who are out in the middle of nowhere working their asses off and doing such a hard job.
This is for 3/3 Kilo Company finally a few weeks away from home and a well deserved rest. B, we're so proud of you and your ninjas.
This is for Shaun, Mike, Roel, Joseph, Kat's dear one, J,Greg, Danelle and Jesse. Oh and also Heather and April over at Wishful Writer's nephew, Josh. He's in the same battalion as my Kilo boys...
God keep you safe and bring you home.
"Good judgment comes from experience...and a lot of that comes from bad judgment".
A friend of mine sent me this quote. I like it.
Experience.
It's what we walk the planet for--
to have both deliberately and accidentally.
Experience is
had,
given,
shared,
learned ,
suffered ,
cherished.
With our eyes shut, Experience only patiently comes back another time when they think then we will be home.
To wrong an Experience you only have to take no lesson from it or steal it from another in the name of love or concern.
With our eyes open from the beginning to the end, Experience can serve us.
In weathering Experience it does become judgement, even if bad at first, like the quote says, with time it becomes good.
What I have yet to master is the ability to wait out the experience. Not rush it and to believe I have what it takes to gracefully weather the discomfort sometimes involved with the weathering.
"One day God will have enough of your foolishness and demand that you hit your knees before Him. You can either do it willingly or He will put his hand upon your head and shove you to them."-Marie Lane
I was out in the blogosphere tonight and from June Cleaver after a Six- Pack I came to a site called Shoved to Them. I found the above quote in her header. Now I would like to say I merely was intrigued by the name...but truth demands I admit while intrigued, I was also on an ego trip. This mama from Shoved to Them liked a comment I made at June's so naturally I had to go and see who this mama with excellent taste was.
If you haven't read her post from today and you are a mama, especially, you really need to do yourself a favor and read it.
Hi-freakin'-larious,
but this is really not why I am talking about her...
no
it's all about me actually...
Ever since I posted the question nay demand, 'tell me what you learned this year' I have been trying to decide just what that looked like for me and I couldn't.
Mostly because, if I say I learned it, there is an underlying suggestion I won't trip on the same kind of question on another test...now that would be stupid wouldn't it? If I were to trip up, I can only hope the next exams wouldn't be posted for everyone in the free world to see and the Universe would certainly set that up, if I make a big stink about learning it in the first place. Right?
If I say I have come to terms with something then I don't ever get to whine about it again...ewww...that kinda sucks, too. Why don't I just give up a half a bottle of wine every other night while I am at it?
The fact of the matter is both demand far more accountability than I am comfortable with providing.
Oh yeah, and I don't do resolutions.
I used to.
I got in fistfights with myself until about the end of February, licked my wounds until May, made excuses and basically determined none of these resolutions had any veracity until the end of summer, had them annulled by October then suffered short term memory loss through the holidays so that by December I felt the pull to slip back into self actualization mode forgetting the self inflicted black eyes and split lips of late winter/ early spring all together.
It was a sick little game I played with myself.
I was in a really bad wreck,
I lost a couple of good friends, got brave and earned one back,
met some really fine people like B, D, Katana, Sgt Grumpy and J
and
found a deep passion for milsupport.
My friends who go through the angst of knowing me face to face
walked me through
a cancer scare
crisis es of faith
insurrections
and some really great Mother's Nights Out
with the flat of their sword or well spoken word knights and poets taught me a few needed lessons I hadn't signed up for while my husband always returned me to tone.
None of it in this order and with some repeats, I lived through it all.
It didn't kill me.
I was pretty sure it would
and I still have a healthy respect for life's ability to want to be clear about it's intentions especially when my neck is so stiff I can't look up or down at it to see what it is trying to tell me at times.
I have no answers for where I have been or even if I clearly recall what all those places were without revision or embellishment.
I am sure that my biggest weakness is self love and that my greatest strength is love of others.
What I have for my 'tell me' is it is easier to love myself if I am not so willing to take my own word for it as much as I am God's. I don't know that I trust Him anymore than I did before, but I know I want to trust Him more and I know that he has sent me some really great people so I can practice.
Who knows what 2008 will bring, but I know whatever it is it involves practice--lots of practice.
Bring it.
