I am on a spiritual journey and the pathway is fraught with
crossroads, ravines, waterfalls, tornadoes, rainbows. This past
week has been an emotionally charged time overflowing with every
type of feeling possible yet in all of this I am filled with a
sweet sorrow gratitude.
I am on a spiritual journey and the pathway is fraught with crossroads, ravines, waterfalls, tornadoes, rainbows. This past week has been an emotionally charged time overflowing with every type of feeling possible yet in all of this I am filled with a sweet sorrow gratitude.
Those who read my words written here or know our family, realize we have a Marine son who is in Iraq. Tuesday started out as any normal day, tending to the routine of life. I phoned a friend who also has a Marine son over there. and while I chatted away, she was very quiet and then interrupted and said, we have to pray now. The mind truly is an amazing creation with the quickness and fluidity of ideas, thoughts, emotions racing through it at alarming speeds.
“Ramadi is under siege, a palace is being stormed and people who normally are not called to fight have picked up weapons. The news is breaking now.”..and so was her heart and mine along with thousands of others. Lives will never be the same, and the world , and my world stood still. Now, I thank God that breathing is involuntary, because if it something I had to do with consciousness, I would not be here to write these words. Ramadi, palace, much, much too close to my heart’s home.
From thousands of miles away, reporters were talking of intense fighting, injuries and deaths, all in the place where our son is based while I sat chatting on the phone. Those of you who have lived this type of life transition can go to the place I went to in one feel swoop. Fear, anger, denial, shock, grief, helplessness race at breathtaking speed only to be replaced by a hole in the heart and an emptiness in your stomach which either energizes you into motion, or stops you from functioning.
My friend and I sat in silence, cried, prayed then parted ways so we could each respond in ways that would get us through these next few seconds, minutes, hours, days, and weeks. We will never be the same and we knew it. Part of the price we pay for democracy and freedom.
We heard from our key volunteer the next day… all in our son’s battalion were fine, yet we knew the band of brothers had been shaken. Being part of an online support group for Marine parents is sweet sorrow. You can tap into support, encouragement, information and knowledge with the stroke of a typewriter key, and you can also tap into raw emotions when parents have not heard from their sons or daughters, or the post comes from a mom whose friend just a few hours earlier had the Marine filled car pull up in front of their home to share the heart breaking news of a loved one paying full price.
So my readers, this has been a week filled with many emotions and I thank each of you who prayed with our country, our men and our women supporting our freedoms in a land far away. If you would like to share a word of caring, e-mails, letters and cards are being taken at www.yourmorganhill.com for our wounded in Ramstein, Germany. You can support Operation Care and Comfort through our local American Red Cross to ship donated items to our deployed troops. Plans are still in the process for care packages for our troops.
On a level closer to home, we see the unrest and wars being waged across the world, and we wonder why and how…Then I pick up our newspapers and see unrest and wars right here in our own town. We need not look any further then our backyard to understand how communications break down and hate, mistrust, anger are sown, fertilized, and harvested. I am saddened when I read our papers because if we cannot find words of peace, compassion, understanding in our tiny town, is there hope across the world?
Peace begins with me and I choose to live gently in thought, word, and action. Seek first to understand the other person’s ideas and perspectives, then to try and understand their ideas and concerns. Trust that the other person as well as yourself is doing the best that she or he can and ask how can I be of support? For it is in giving of our time, love, energy, resources, compassion, mercy, grace and forgiveness that we receive.
This last week was nationally and internationally a time of despair, resurrection, transformation, and celebration for belief systems. Statements of forgiveness were whispered from a cross to point us in a way leading to peace. Forgive them for they know not what they do are words that are etched on many minds. These words are action words, not feeling words. So today, ask for forgiveness for yourself and for others as we all have fallen short.
Today don’t look for ways to tear down look for ways to be of support. Willingly and purposefully choose to live your life with integrity, peace and love and be a point of light to light your own pathway and for others along their spiritual journey.
I am on my knees with arms outstretched in gratitude for all of our miracles and blessings, seen and unseen. Thank you for being part of my journey.
Mary Ellen Salzano is a Realtor for Century 21 Premier. She lives in Morgan Hill with her husband and two children. She also is a library commissioner. Her columns, Sharing and Caring, are published the third Friday of the month. Contact her at ma***************@***oo.com
