Woman

I remember writing a blog on MySpace back in 2006 from my "Tin Can" while in the Anbar province of Iraq. I think I named it My Superwoman. I can't know for sure as MySpace got rid of all of the blogs. Anyway, I remember writing how impressed I was of how utterly composed my wife was after a phone call I had with her from Baghdad. My wife who was at home with a 12 year old son and 10 year old daughter, working full time and taking care of everything a family has to go through all while her husband and partner in crime is fighting a war 1,000's of miles away. I recall that day as well that I only called home once a month so I could stay focused on the tasks at hand and come home alive. This was also for me because it was too tough for me to hear their voices. I would get too homesick and not be able to stay in the game as it were. To this I add, she never once made me feel guilty for any of it. She never sounded stressed and never overwhelmed. She was literally a super woman. She just handled it and drove on each and every day, she was and remains the epitome of resilience. She was handed a whole bunch of lemons and made the most delish lemonade (according to the kids her cooking while dad was away could have been a bit more delish, I will let them tell you one day about apples and chicken!)

Yesterday I just celebrated 13 years home from that scary sandbox I was looking back at a few photos and was reminded of how tough my wife is. How when she gave birth to our son and daughter and I looked into her eyes I saw a strength I didn't even know existed in a human being. How that same strength inside of her can produce the most profound love a person could feel. The kind of love that would allow for a broken Soldier like me to come home from the trauma of war to a place where he could feel safe. As of the writing of this, I am in the process of writing my first book (and probably only) on the The Five L’s A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR HELPING LOVED ONES HEAL AFTER TRAUMA and the book in it's entirety is dedicated to her. She really did love, listen, learn. lessen and lead me out of my PTS.

Looking at our nation and all of the flaws that it has I am actually encouraged to see us nominate a woman of color for the office of Vice President. Despite how you feel about her, she is Woman and you better recognize the strength and resilience of a woman!

A few of my thoughts on Woman.

Woman: She has never been given her rightful due in the world and is continually knocked down over and over again, yet still She stands, she stands in the face of adversity and stands for all of us.

Woman: She has crushing responsibilities placed daily upon her to be the bread winner, sweet lover, kind and compassionate mother, PTA president, cupcake maker and still She rises, she rises under the weight that most couldn't endure for the sake of those she loves.

Woman: She endures the explicit disparity in pay, day in a day out. She knows she does the same if not better work than her male counter parts and must navigate sexual harassment all while maintaining her emptions as not to be seen as weak and still She survives.

Woman: She is. She is strong, intelligent, worthy, adaptive, creative, professional, instinctual, talented, skilled and should be all of these and many more without offering any sort of apology. I pray my wife knows the depths of which she pulled me and continues to buoy me from and I also pray my daughters and grand daughters will know that I believe in their worth and will forever be their champion.

Let us as a country begin today to champion the women in our lives. She has earned it.