...your everyday life? You know when we get so caught up and so busy doing this thing and that thing and we don't even take a look around and realize the life around us?
I'm guilty of getting caught up in my perfect little family and life and sometimes, I forget what it all really means.
I'm surrounded by soldiers in uniform everyday; I pull up next to Humvee's at stoplights, I listen to Taps every night at 10, and I am no stranger to Welcome Home Ceremonies.
The other day, we were at a friends and talking to a group of guys that are deploying soon. And it made me realize that although my husband is home right now, I'm ALWAYS going to have someone I care about overseas.
Between friends, husbands' of friends, neighbors, etc... someone I know is always fighting a war. This really hit me hard.
I can't really listen to stories of when Z was in Afghanistan because then it becomes real again. At this point, it feels like a dream and I've tried to put the worst 10 months of my life behind me. But every now and then, the stories start flying and I'm reminded that it wasn't a dream, it wasn't a figment of my imagination, and the scariest past, it could happen again.
I know that the men and women that serve have it really hard; but as a wife of a soldier, so do we. They're hard in different ways and neither of them are very fun.
It was this time last year that I was preparing to see my husband again for the first time in 7 months. Some soldiers weren't so lucky. Some weren't able to be with their families because they took R&R at a different time, and some made the ultimate sacrifice and would never be coming home.
It's still hard for me to grasp this, and for those of you who may not be apart of the military life, I'm sure you may have a hard time understanding this as well.
So this holiday season, I urge you to support our military in anyway you can. Send cards or packages to soldiers overseas. Talk to a Veteran at your local V.F.W. Reach out to a military spouse and ask her if she needs anything. Take a visit to a military base if you are near one and just drive around and soak it all in.
These men and women aren't recognized as much as they should be. I'm so used to my husband, our friends, and those that have become family that I often forget that they are heros. They may play games, come to dinner, or go to the gym with us in civilian clothes, but when it all comes down to it, they are soldiers and protect the United States of America.
You may not be a military spouse, but maybe you're in a different type of lifestyle or time in your life where you can step out of your own little world and take a look into another's. It might surprise you how different things look afterwards...
