Monday, May 16, 2011

Finding your Strength

I had a couple of conversations today with different friends about strength. I think strength & being strong often means different things to different people. I know for me as a wife, mom, & military spouse it often means feeling like I am losing my mind.I don't doubt that I can make it through trainings & deployments when my husband is gone from our family. But sometimes I do find myself feeling overwhelmed from the lack of adult conversation & a partner around to listen; to help; to lean on when I need a hug.

When my friend asked today if her feelings of being tired & overwhelmed where "normal" I laughed out loud literally. I said "girl if it's not normal then I should be locked up in the loony bin!". I think as spouses or girl friends of soldiers who are absent from our everyday lives we have to remember to find a source of comfort & strength we can draw on when we feel overwhlemed. I assured her by talking with me on the phone a somewhat "seasoned" Army wife she was finding some comfort for her self. I told her stories from when Paul & I where dating long distance. I told stories from different deployments of when I completely lost my mind & how I got my feet grounded again.I can only hope it did her some good to realize that everyone hits that "deployment wall" as I call it & it SUCKS!! I am not going to sugar coat it- it is AWFUL. Mine usually comes about 6 months into a deployment . I want to crawl into my bed & never come out! Of course it never last thanks to good friends, facebook, my mom, & a lot of wine! That & the fact that I can't let the children starve- I am pretty sure I could go to jail for that.

I think we all just need to remember that we aren't alone even when the one person we really want to be standing next to us isn't able to physically be there. We have to continue to encourage & uplift one another on these crazy deployment roller coaster rides. Find Strength in eachother when we feel like we have none left. Even if it's chatting on the phone, leaving a funny Facebook message,going to dinner, sharing a glass of wine. Little things that remind us we have more Strength in our little fingers then most of the general population in America. That we ALWAYS have another person we can talk it out with when our soldier's can't be there. You aren't alone & we can do this together.

2 comments:

Danielle, VA Beach Photographer said...

Thank you for this post! It came at just the right time for me. :)

Amanda said...

I am glad, I know it's not always an easy subject to talk about. But a very necessary talk to have when your hanging on to the end of your rope.