Happy Veterans Day !

I never could understand what is so “happy” about it.

These are men and women who have sacrificed their time, their minds, their bodies and sometimes their very lives for the values they hold to be true, namely protecting and defending their nation from all offenders foreign and domestic. They hold steadfast to their morality and deeper connection of loyalty, patronage, courage, honor and dignity with the utmost respect and love for their country and its inhabitants. If not then why even join.

It is their duty of service that is to be admired. We are ” happy ” for these brave souls yet behind the eyes of these strong individuals, they are humans like everyone else with fears, worries, and vulnerabilities. Do we dare to recognize these traits, for if we truly did we wouldn’t be happy, we would be sad. We celebrate them yet do we acknowledge their humanity which far too often may be broken on return from deployment.

They do not argue about their nations politics and debates by politicians or where they are being sent. They pick up their weapons, adorn their uniform and go. They push past their own wounds, instabilities and fears and focus on the job at hand. This is courage. That is something to celebrate. Their honor and duty, that is something to applaud.

I prefer to respect and acknowledge all veterans from all branches of the services for who they are as a complete human being with their strengths, moralities of duty, honor, code and dedication as well as the forgotten parts of them that remain hidden from the rest of the world, their concerns, fears and stresses.

I salute the families who have veterans amongst them. It cannot be easy to say good bye to a loved one when they are deployed as much as it is easy to say good bye to a child going on the school bus or going off to college. When they suffer the loss, the nation is crippled with that loss.

So from my heart to the heart of every veteran, I thank you for who you are and what you do and will do.

From my soul to the soul of every veteran that has passed, I thank you for who you once were and what you did.

I love you for the complete soul and human that you have been and are in this moment.

We celebrate ” Gratitude for Veterans Day”. And we honor you daily not just one day of November 11.

A potent day of 11/11.
……………….
I love you