yesterday, my boyfriend graduated from his MOS (Military Occupation Specialty) training.
the ceremony was short and simple, but i am so unbelievably proud of everything he has accomplished so far. he has gone on to be stationed and is awaiting news for his upcoming deployment.
besides his graduation, i wanted to share several other military-oriented things that touched me this week.
seeing battle: los angeles this past saturday.
i saw quite a few movie reviews and a lot of statuses on facebook ripping this movie apart. maybe it wasn't "cinematically correct," according to all the movie geniuses out there. maybe the aliens didn't look real or maybe it was overdone.
but the film touched my heart deeply. maybe because i got to see only a breath of what our military goes through to protect us {not fighting aliens, of course, but real live bad guys}. you see some give up their own life for the lives of everyone else around them. you see the faces of the other Marines when they realize they have lost a comrade. you see how they have to be strong despite everyone else's weakness and how they hold each other up in the midst of chaos. you see that, no matter what, they never retreat; they never give up.
at the beginning of the movie, the Marines are in a helicopter, heading out in the midst of foreign gunfire to save civilians and to fight the enemy. the air is thick with anxiety and each Marine's eyes meet the others, wondering what awaits them.
i hate imagining my boyfriend, let alone anyone else's loved one, in that situation. but knowing that i love a man who is willing to go that distance for me and for the rest of this country...makes me appreciate him and all of our military that much more.
during blog lurking this week, i found someone who had posted a link to this.
i won't add words to it and i shouldn't. the description is more than enough.
The night before the burial of her husband's body, Katherine Cathey refused to leave the casket, asking to sleep next to his body for the last time. The Marines made a bed for her, tucking in the sheets below the flag. Before she fell asleep, she opened her laptop computer and played songs that reminded her of "Cat," and one of the Marines asked if she wanted them to continue standing watch as she slept. "I think it would be kind of nice if you kept doing it," she said. "I think that's what he would have wanted."
and finally, a post from a blogger i follow,
her husband is another who sacrifices his time with her and with their family to serve and protect this country.
i hope her words touch your heart as much as they did mine.
one by one
They do so little sometimes.
One of them missed the first cookout of the summer. It was a unseasonably warm day, perfect for setting up the kiddie pool and grilling hot dogs and hamburgers. He wasn't there, so she blew bubbles for the kids and got out the sidewalk chalk so they could draw stick figures of Mom and Dad together. She wondered how they could draw it from memory.
One missed church on Sunday. The pew had been vacant for months. The pastor mentioned something about it in his service. A few people nodded, as if they were sure it was only temporary.
One couldn't be there for his father after the heart attack. He didn't visit him in the hospital or send flowers to his room. While the rest of the family gathered together, he was noticeably absent.
One missed her wedding anniversary. She tried to phone her husband, but the signal was too fuzzy and broken. He spent a night at home, sitting on the couch in silence. She spent it clinging to his dusty picture and dreaming about the date night they would have had.
One wasn't there for his little girl's birthday. It was something his wife never pictured him missing. They had a small party for her, and gave her a card with “Daddy” scribbled at the bottom. The girl knows he didn't sign it. She hasn't seen her father for six months. She still cries for him at bedtime.
One didn't get a honeymoon after his wedding. He hasn't spent a full week with his bride. She clings to the dirty shirt he left on the floor because it still smells a little like him. She is starting to forget the face of the man she married. Sometimes she looks at her wedding ring just to remind herself that she didn't imagine that day.
One didn't call when it was most needed. One didn't get online after a ominous day in the news. One missed the family reunion. One wasn't there for their daughter's graduation. One missed their son's birth.
And we should thank every one of the ones who aren't there. We should thank them for all the things that they aren't doing. To serve our country and keep us all safe, they are giving up the precious, priceless moments in life.
Sometimes it isn't about what they're going through over there, but what they're missing here. Life does not pause for deployment. Time rushes forward.
One by one, they miss these moments for us. By serving, they give us these pieces of their hearts.
---
those are the things that have been on my heart the last few days.
please never forget to pray for our troops
and for their families who sacrifice more than most of us can ever realize.
0 comments:
Post a Comment