Grateful

My Brother Posted something that had a profound effect on me and I would like to share some of it:

"You can count many aspects of war. The many billion dollars spent, thousands injured, thousands killed, buildings destroyed and reconstructed. It is possible to count the shattered bodies but can we quantify the effect of the shattered lives? Can we measure the loneliness of a man surrounded by a room full of people who he knows will never really understand where he has been, what he has done. It’s the hidden causalities of war that I think about. The broken marriages and families. The alcoholic who can’t seem to keep a job. The three year old boy whose parents are separated because his daddy just isn’t happy anymore. It’s the Soldiers who have lost their faith that worry me, faith in God, faith in humanity, faith in life. Or worse, the ones who have lost hope. The thousands of veterans who have taken their own lives when the darkness closed in and the light left their lives. How can we measure their pain? How can we measure our loss? We can never really know what war has cost humanity."

As I read this I couldnt help but think of all the things in my life I take for grantid; Freedom, money, the stable jobs Nate and I have, Education, Food, Running Water, Plumbing, Cars and etc. The list could go on and on. We live in a country where we are free to choice our own paths, our own destiny, be who we want to be, and we can do all of this because of the thousands of Men and Women who sacrifice their lives. The thousands of Men and Women who spend countless days, months and even years away from the family members they love. The men and women who sacrafice everything so that I can be free. So today as I sit and contemplate I am grateful. Grateful for these Men and Women, especially the men and women in my family, who have sacraficed for my freedom!! I am grateful that I can live in a country where I have the right to openly practice my religion and not be ridiculed, I am grateful for family and friends who have always been their for me, I am grateful for an amazing husband who loves me and puts up with me. And mainly I am grateful for her,



for her laughs and her smiles.