Tomorrow is my birthday, Sunday, January 15th, 2012. I will be 62 years old tomorrow – old enough to retire (if I want to live penuriously for the remainder of my 38 years – hey, it could happen that I live to be 100!) <\/p>\n
But all of that is backdrop to today’s topic – Erik is leaving Afghanistan tomorrow – never to be deployed to the middle east or anywhere else – again. As I am, in fact, superstitious about ‘counting my chickens before they hatch’, I write this with fear & trepidation, but feel compelled to say it on the eve of his return: Thank God. Wow, you say, superstitious and religious. OK, get all that out of your system and let’s move on, because that isn’t the point either.<\/p>\n
When your only son is deployed in the armpit of the world, on the front lines, getting blasted on a daily basis, and he lives to leave it – you Thank God. He has had scores of people praying for his safe return, because I have foisted my story on everyone I know, meet or in any way come into contact with. As such, scores of prayers have been answered with his safe return. Now, you say, he isn’t coming home until tomorrow – nothing is certain until it’s done – thanks for reminding me. But indulge me while I whisper a repeated mantra: Thanks to God he is safe, whole and coming home.<\/p>\n
A thousand years ago, I asked three things of the government, on the eve of his departure: here they were:<\/p>\n
1) Give him meaningful work to do (nobody likes to think of themselves as cord wood in a life & death situation)
\n2) Give him protective gear to at least give him a fighting chance to survive; and
\n3) Oh, damn – I forgot the third one! What do you expect from a 62 year old?<\/p>\n
Back to the point, from which I keep drifting: Erik is coming home to a woman he loves, and who loves him, two daughters that also fit into that classification and an army that – at last! – will compensate him for everything he’s endured since January 2008. At last, we can inhale, exhale, and somewhere in between – not have to pray for his safe return from that miserable place.<\/p>\n
Amen. Tomorrow is my birthday, Sunday, January 15th, 2012. I will be 62 years old tomorrow – old enough to retire (if I want to live penuriously for the remainder of my 38 years – hey, it could happen that I … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.planetsusan.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/dancing-erik.gif\" "\\"dancing")
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"