Together we stand

For those who follow my blog, you may recall me mentioning a dear friend, Alison. Ali has been an inspiration to me, as she is a seasoned Army Wife with FOUR deployments under her belt, and is probably the only truly honest Army Wife friend that I have. Picture a librarian/stripper, and you have a visual of Ali. She is sassy, smart, loveable, and as of Friday…. Alone again. Deployment number five is looming in the foreground, and I wish I could say that Ali is handling it with all of the grace and poise of the ‘suffer-in-silence’ Army Wife, but the truth is, Ali is devastated.

Families like Alison’s have been put through the ringer, and although the Army has made great strides to improve the services available to families in crisis, there is still so much work to be done. Services need to be made more readily available to children, Military Wives need to have access to better counseling—not just medication--, and deployments NEED to be shortened to under a year. Military families across this great nation are broken and hurting, and this isn’t something that can be quickly fixed by some hot welcome-home-sex and a trip to Disney World. The hurt, bitterness, and isolation cuts deep, and my heart breaks for all that Ali will have to once again endure.

People are always asking me, “What’s the secret to success? How have you, the woman who has more red flags tagging her sanity than an after-Christmas sale at Walmart, managed to beat the odds?” And the answer is this: I haven’t beaten anything yet—I just continuously fight. A war can threaten to take your humanity—but it will never break your soul. So stand resolute.

Today, I want to shout out to Ali, my broken-hearted-friend , who is once again asked to walk through the fire of a deployment. Take time for yourself, never apologize for feeling pain, try not to blame your husband for this arduous journey you navigate, and know that I am here for you. Always. America owes more to you than it will ever fully realize, and I have to believe with all of my heart that in the end, these sacrifices you have made will be worth it. And remember, I am just an airplane ride away, and can be there in a heartbeat. Today, I am making a promise to Ali, and to all the military wives who are spending this weekend alone, that I have an ear to listen and a heart to bleed-- so contact me if you need to. Someday I hope to plop down in the sand next to you, give you a hug, hand you a glass, uncork a bottle and announce, “Friend--I am here for you. Dinner is poured.”

(The face of strength)