"Don't be dismayed at good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends."
~~Richard Bach
I found this video on RN the other day, and I have watched it a few times. Here’s something that need to be broadcast for all to hear. Of course you will not see it, nor will you hear it on any news program.
*warning for very mild language*
I don’t know if Mike’s Company had a specific name for this project, but I have titled it “Operation School Supply.” Creative and witty, I know!
I finally got some pictures of how the school supply delivery went, and it has been wonderful looking through them all. I wanted to share them here since so many of you followed the progress of the project. I also wanted to put something up on the blog in order to thank everyone involved — especially the Mead Corporation.
For those of you who were not around on Knee Deep back in November/December of last year we worked hard to get 600+ pounds of donated school supplies to the children in the Diyala Province. The donation was the result of Mike’s request and an email I sent to a friend at the Mead Corporation. Mead donated 600 pounds of school supplies, and friends and church members donated more on top of that. Then two people who read this blog (thank you so much P and S!), and my Church donated postage and reimbursement for postage to make it more affordable for me to do the shipping. It was a huge blessing as the shipping costs totaled over $500.
When Mike was home on leave this past November he led the JROTC program at Nate’s school in a project to break the supplies down, repackage them and prepare them for shipment. It took days on end of making regular trips to the post office to get it all shipped after they packaged, sealed, labeled and filled out customs forms for it, but we did it! We were definitely not the only people who stepped forward to donate. The soccer balls were a donation through a DJ a soldier met on a flight, friends, family, community members and churches in the US gathered supplies and shipped them to our Stryker Soldiers (Infantry) who are currently serving in the War on Terror in the Diyala Province.
The call was put out and the resounding answer was one that echoes support of our troops and their mission.
Enjoy the montage (tip: if the montage starts breaking up a little, just pause it for a moment while it queues.)
A post at Piper’s reminded me of one of my favorite Classical pieces. It was composed by Franz Schubert, and it tells the story of a lone Shepherd who goes through a transition from complacency, to a long cold winter separated from his love, to the hope and exuberant joy of remembering that the Springtime is just around the corner and his hope is rekindled.
It’s funny how poetry, art, music and the like can seem to tell our stories over and over again. This lieder has always resonated with me in various seasons of my life. Some say the lieder is truly about the life of a shepherd, others would argue that the symbolism has a Christian based reflection of the Church longing for reconciliation with Christ.
The song is done in classical German Art Song format. The words to the song are taken from a poem, but the music tells the story as you listen to the three phases of the Shepherd’s life. The Shepherd’s tale would just sound like an average, joyful song if you only listened to the first part. I say it’s complacency because the Shepherd really has not gone through his sorrow just yet. It’s the sorrow in the wintertime that creates a tension and prepares the listener for the incredibly exuberant finish. If you listen closely to the entire song with the words in mind you will be ready to jump to your feet and dance with the Shepherd at the end when his hope, joy and being are rekindled and revived.
Below the English interpretation of the song (yes it’s original language is German and it’s beautiful!) is a rendition of the song by Soprano Elly Ameling who does a beautiful job with presentation and interpretation. She sounds angelic and her voice is pure, strong and breathtaking. Even though I love Ameling’s version I have to argue that none surpass Dame Felicity Lott in her rendition of Shepherd on the Rock. When Lott sings it you can feel your own heart break during the Shepherd’s long and lonely winter. You will enjoy the song linked below, but if you ever get the chance to hear Lott’s rendition I highly recommend it. Enjoy.
When I am standing on the highest rock, looking Down in the deep valley, And sing, and sing. And sing.
Far way from the dark, deep valley, The echo comes up, the echo from the gorges
The further my voice travels, the brighter it comes back again, from down there.My sweetheart lives so far from me, that’s why I’m yearning for her so much, Over there.
The deep sorrow eats me up, joy died for me. Hope left me on earth; I am so lonely here.
So longing sounds the song in the forest, So longing does it sound through the night.The hearts are drawn to heaven with a magical force.
Springtime will be coming, spring time, my joy, Now I am getting ready to wonder.
Shepherd on the Rock (part 1 Complacency to Sorrow)
Shepherd on the Rock (part 2 From Sorrow to Joy)
I have recently started taking a class called “Body Sculpting” at the YMCA. It is an intense one-hour long class that targets specific muscle groups and works them to the point of fatigue. I never knew how painful exercising could be until I started this class, and I honestly mean that. Several years ago I took Yoga for a period of time. I loved it. It was a lot of work and it would leave my muscles a sore, but nothing like what I am experiencing in this new class. The odd thing about the pain is … I like it.
I like to feel the pain after the workout because I know that I am building muscle. I like the pain because it is the type of pain where you know you are not injured, and you know that you have done something good and beneficial. This pain will make me stronger, and there will come a point where these types of workouts will get easier and I will have to add more weight on my small barbell and use bigger hand weights. Weight lifting, running, Yoga, and other repetitious types of exercise gets easier with time. It’s not just because you are building muscle either.
Muscle memory is a large reason why an exercise gets easier with time. Just like memorizing lines for a play — the more you say them, read them, and see them the better you remember the lines — your neuromuscular system remembers the movement of an exercise. The memory makes the muscles more efficient in their movement and more accurate in their target. The body no longer needs to build muscle in order to do the repetitions, and it no longer exerts the same amount of energy. This is why we have to step up our work outs all the time in order to stay healthy. It’s important to keep up the exercise or you will eventually lose some of that muscle memory, but the old saying “just like riding a bike” is also true. Once you learn a skill and learn it well, even if you quit for a long period of time, you will gain the skill back quicker than when you learned it the first time. When you hop back on that bike after giving up the pedals for 10-years you may be wobbly, but it doesn’t take long to remember how to balance.
So, what does all of this talk about muscle memory have to do with coping and deployment? It serves as a very good parallel that is helping me understand the journey I have been on for the past ten months. Not only have I been building muscle and cardiovascular capacity over the past year, but I have also been building coping skills and abilities. It’s something that I set out to intentionally tackle, and now that I am 10-months out I can see that my “coping muscles” are getting stronger and have more definition to them. That does not mean that the difficulties of deployment have gotten easier — it means that I am coping with them more efficiently and more accurately now that I have some “behavioral-emotional memory” to draw from. [Read more →]
I have been reflecting a lot lately on a quote my husband wrote in his entries as my guest blogger. I am thinking mostly on
the issue he addresses in his fourth entry regarding the general public view of soldiers. Mind you he is not saying everyone, but rather the general population at large. That is the same group I am thinking of tonight. After reading way too much news today I simply have to write out my thoughts. Bryan’s quote that is on my mind is…
We all have images in our mind’s eye that defines what we think a certain type of person or a certain vocation must be like. Very few members of John-Q-Public ever have the opportunity to see what a Soldier, an NCO, or an Officer of the Army is really like. Too much of our knowledge is formed by Hollywood and the TV networks, even in this age of alternate media reporting. Maybe more strides have been made during my lifetime to correct this problem than ever before. Yet, I think a full-orbed view of who the citizen soldier “is” is too much for regular people to grasp. Additionally I think it is too traumatic for them to grasp. Because, if they did then they would have to care, and if they cared then they would have to do something about it. By “something” I don’t mean carry a sign, write a congressman, or forward an email. No. I mean they would really have to do something tangible in the same manner as when your three year old says “please, I am hungry” — and the cost of actually doing something is for some of them too high. Far too high. So it is easier to idealize our Soldiers, our Officers, and the like by casting them in the role of sinner or saint. In that way the observers can embrace as much or as little as they can afford to embrace.
Since his return, we have talked at great lengths about Bryan’s military experiences and how it has changed and impacted him - both in good ways and in ways that are not so good. One way it has impacted him for the better is a newly developed empathetic understanding of soldiers. The time he spent in TraDoc was enough for him to have developed a deep sense of appreciation and a personal connection to his “Brothers in Arms.” Soldiers generally are not iconic to other soldiers. Bryan was processing in his quote above how the citizen soldier is often a blank canvas for super-ego projection, and how we tend to see soldiers more as an iconic figure than as simply another human.
There is a portrait in my den that is almost finished. It’s a portrait of Mike that Bryan painted from a snapshot picture. The portrait displays Mike on his 21st birthday, dressed in his battle rattle, holding a weapon, and looking tiredly into the camera. His eyes, in both the picture and the painting, are very shadowed due to the angle of the lens and the relative position of the sun. It is not exactly the best lighting in which to see the details of a person’s face. Bryan plans on titling the work “Not just another pretty face.” He wanted to call it that because to our family Mike is more, so much more, than just a soldier. [Read more →]
Well, not really, but it felt like it! I just visited over at Piper’s place and took a stroll through her photo gallery of places she visited on a recent trip to Lisbon. Take a moment and peek at these pictures (be sure to click the thumbnails for full, easy to navigate pictures), which are simply beautiful! Be sure to read Piper’s fun and charming narration too. I recommend looking at all of her picture albums. They are very well done and can take you away from the humdrum of your living room for a quick spell to fun and exciting places!
For another fun get away, Piper style, go to her new blog Lovedale and read about her adventures in this beautiful, 150-year old boarding school in India. Piper shares a lot of great stories and history about the school in which she affectionately recalls her high school years. She is well written and I always find something I relate to in her stories.
Thank you Piper for sharing your adventures!
One very frustrated and tired voter is desperately seeking a Presidential Candidate who can fulfill the duties of the Office of the President of the United States and Commander in Chief of the greatest military on the face of the planet. Over time, flexible hours and a deep sense of patriotism is required.
The job requires the following skills and knowledge base:
Only serious inquires need apply. I am too flippin’ tired to thumb through a bunch of applicants who are just as crooked, out of touch, and self absorbed as the current applicants. Also, if you have ever appeared on MTV to “rock the vote” you should have your butt kicked again by two Texans — and don’t bother applying here.
I am not superstitious. Not only am I not superstitious, but I am painfully suspicious of most things that are rooted in intuition and other immeasurable things. I am a skeptic. I learned to scrutinize every possible explanation for cause and effect relationships while working in research. There’s an alternate explanation for nearly everything. So, why am I now haunted by and succumbing to these superstitious feelings that I could somehow “jinx” his redeployment? I know it’s irrational, so I am not entertaining the thought as even a remote possibility, but rather I am processing the wild and erratic ride my heart has had me on for the past several months.
I am not sure if this is a temporary mind set, or if this will be my “new normal” since deployment has obviously altered my, “already skewed enough as it was,” brain. I am wondering when your guard finally comes back down. When can I actually allow that one muscle in my shoulder blades to finally un-spasm itself? When I was younger I used to think how wonderful it would be to take life totally and utterly as a fragile thing. I thought that living like the next breath is not granted would be such a blissful state. We really are not supposed to take our next breath or day as a promised thing. It’s a very refreshing place to reside I think. It really is when it’s done for small periods of time, but the truth of the matter is mere mortals are not equipped to live in that state all the time. We just aren’t.
I want to plan. I want to start a “countdown” timer to a redeployment time frame, but I don’t dare. I gasp even thinking of it. If I get too excited maybe he will get too excited. If we both get too excited then maybe mistakes will happen, and I can’t allow myself to think about what happens when mistakes are made. When you let your shoulders relax the world will certainly fall!
Atlas has no clue as to how heavy the world really is when someone you love so dearly is “walking the beat” so to speak, in the Middle East.
Even when he boards the plane in Kuwait to head off into the sunset of redeployment and the surreal feeling of walking down a street without 50 pounds of gear on, or the feeling of not having to eye people approaching him with suspicion and fear that their intention is hidden in a malignant vest under their clothing, he will not be guaranteed safety. [Read more →]