Back to Normal

It sure has been a busy first month of 2013.  One year ago today, I had just arrived at Camp Shelby Mississippi to begin what would become quite an odyssey.  I remember trying to find a bottom bunk in barracks crammed with 30 or 40 other soldiers who I had just met and who knew as little as I did about what the coming year would hold.  Weeks of training and then the deployment and then finally the end in December.  Quite a lot happened in the last year.  I never dreamed it would end the way it did.  But now I am back working with veterans.  And in a day or so I'll be just a part time soldier again.  Kuwait seems like a dream to me.  A long strange dream.  It just didn't feel real.  But my work for veterans...that seems real.  I am back fully now and so happy to be doing what I am doing.  The other day I was able to help get two young veterans off of the street.  Sad really, but it did make me feel like I was doing something more important then I ever did in Kuwait.  Afghanistan did not happen for me.  I had hoped to fight in a second war.  It was not to be.  Destiny sent me to Kuwait instead.  But the war at home....this war against homelessness and despair and depression and addiction....that is my war now.  This is a war that is worth fighting.  This is a war we can win.  And I know I can do my part to win it.  This time next year I hope I can look back with the realization that I've done the best I can in this effort.  Goodbye January hello February.