Saturday, November 10, 2012

I always say thank you to our troops at the airport. . .

So. . . I have definitely NOT kept up daily blog posts.  Are you surprised?  My gratitude has not needed as much elaboration as I thought, and honestly a few days it was kind of hard to find something different to be thankful for.  Not that I wasn't thankful, I just couldn't find an angle worth gushing about on here.

Today, however, I jumped ahead of my pre-planned gratitude.  I was going to wait until Veteran's Day to gush about my patriotic thanks for our nation's military, but between the Marine Corps birthday and video footage of LSU's tribute to our veterans ("Taps" makes me teary eyed!) I couldn't help it, I had to say it today.

I suppose that's a pretty cliche thing to be thankful for (I would hope that everyone would understand and be grateful for the sacrifices of a volunteer military like no other) but it's something I feel is deeply rooted in my heart.  I grew up in a community anchored by a large Army base, as the granddaughter of a retired sergeant. I spent my fair share of time on base in my early years.  My grandfather was very sick and had many appointments on base, eventually having to be hospitalized in San Antonio.  My grandmother worked at the Child Development Center, where I went to pre-school.  There were also many shopping trips at the PX and the Commisary.  From an early age I was taught about the daily flag ritual and that you ALWAYS stopped and put your hand over your heart during the national anthem.  My grandmother taught me patriotic songs and even after she passed on, I continued spending time on base visiting friends from school and work who lived in military housing.

In my adult life, I have many friends who joined the military or are married into the military, not just in the Army but in pretty much every branch.  The gratitude and pride I have for those who serve and the families who support them only grows stronger.


Saturday, November 3, 2012

Thanks be to Blog

I've been pretty bad about consistently blogging for a plethora of reasons/excuses including but not limited to:

1) Difficulty discerning what is/isn't appropriate to share with the WORLD
2) Not necessarily feeling like what I share is worth sharing to anyone else
3) Generally just not making it a priority
4) Etc. . .

BUT

I jumped on the November thankful Facebook status bandwagon, and thought that some of those status updates could be expanded upon into blog entries.  Wham, bam, thank you ma'am!  A blogging incentive strategy was born.

I won't back track though (at least not right now) so I'll just start with today.

Today, dear internet readers, I am thankful for lasting, meaningful friendships.  Yes, I know that sounds cheesy and trite, but it's true damn it.  Today I reunited with my old roommate after, well I'm not sure how many months.  She moved to Dallas this year and we kind of drifted while living our own lives.  She made an impromptu road trip back this weekend though, so we caught up on life.  It was great to chat, catch up, and most of all give each other perspective and support on the things that have been weighing most heavily on our hearts.  I love that we can keep in touch and catch up despite the usual distance.

I'm blessed with several friendships like that.  Some of my dearest friends live across the country, or even the world!  Two of my particular best friends are military wives I've known since elementary school.  During college we would get caught up in our own lives, sometimes not talking for months.  However, as soon as something big happens we'd reach out via phone call, text message, email, FB message, whatever and it's like NO time has passed at all.  We just pick up where we left off and mix our extensive history with the wisdom from our new experiences and help each other navigate life's journey.

Even living in the same city sometimes my local friends get caught up in life and don't get to chat or hang out every day, or even every week.  Still, we are there for each other and I know that if I wound up moving away there are those friends here who would transition into the same kind of friendship I have with my friends from my hometown.

So the next time I'm having a moment of loneliness, I just have to remember that I've got an unusually high number of top quality friends, in various time zones, to be awesome no matter how long it's been since we've gotten a chance to catch up.  I've got friends for all occasions.

Blessed and thankful,