So Many

I wrote a post the other day about my overwhelming sadness that my son was going to go to a combat zone for a year. I couldn't bear the thought of him being away from his family for so long and I couldn't bear that he was going to a dangerous place.

Beth tweeted about it and wrote about it and mentioned my post in her post.

Since then, there have been so many comments, so many comforting words, and so many good wishes. From so many people in the same boat or even worse boats and from so many people that just appreciate what he does and feel empathy for the impact it has on him and his family.

Don't get me wrong. I am still indescribably sad to have him over there but my heart is comforted by the words of so many.

So many people offered virtual "hugs" and I felt like I could feel them. They offered prayers and those prayers became my prayers. And they offered love and my heart was filled with love. They reminded me of how proud I can be of my son and his values. And expressed gratitude for what he and so many other men do for us and our country. And, most of all, one after another, let me know that they were thinking warm and loving thoughts of our family right now. And I felt them all.

After a very long trip, he arrived there about five hours ago and as Amy T said in her comment, "Big hugs and allow yourself to be sad at first, than throw all that sadness out the window and focus all your energy on care packages and letters and love for your soldier! Thank you to your son for defending our freedoms" And I have to say that Amy T nailed it. She expressed everything I knew but forgot to think about and more.

But that doesn't take away from the reminders of faith and prayerful good wishes of everybody else.

I doubt that very few could know what an impact your comments had - not just on me but on our entire family.

So thank you to everyone that thought of us or commented or said a prayer. But I have bad news. I think we're going to have to do this again soon. When, over the phone, I cried on the shoulder of second born Army son (firstborn's identical twin), and told him that he better not be going anywhere, he reluctantly told me that he would be leaving for Afghanistan this summer or just before Christmas.

I hope you'll all hover nearby because I (and my entire family) am going to need you sorely when there are two of them deployed. Then I'll really have something to cry about.

It reminds me of my dad when I was little. He'd think my crying over some small thing was uncalled for and would often say, "stop crying or I'll give you something to cry about".

When the day comes that they're both deployed, I'll go back over the comments that you've left on that post and I'll think about the wise, supportive, comforting words of such a multitude of beautiful people. And I'll be comforted.

And I'll thank you all from the bottom of my heart once again.

It's A Small 'Bloggy' World

Yesterday, as I did some much needed email filing, I came across a comment from Thea at I'm A Drama Mama; and, I decided to visit her site. I enjoyed the first post I came across and became more interested when she mentioned moving from Ohio to Maryland.

I browsed through a few previous posts and when I got to this one which asked for a vote for a photograph she had taken, I immediately decided to cast my vote because I liked the photo SO MUCH! Unfortunately, it was too late for my vote but the picture haunted me. It looked so familiar and then I remembered where I had seen it. It was in my January picture file. Here's my version. Now look again at hers.

Go ahead. Compare. It's definitely the same barn but with a different setting. She had snow. I didn't. But obviously we both thought it was unusual enough and picturesque enough to photograph it. Remember this isn't at a famous tourist site or near a national landmark of some kind. It's a barn along a highway in Pennsylvania.

And that's proof that blogging is making our world smaller, more accessible, and friendlier than it's ever been before.

We meet people that we'll never see. We empathize with individuals that have nothing in common with us at all. We compare notes with others about weather, work, family, friends, shopping, kids, schools, etc. etc. etc. Because no matter how different we are or how far apart we live, we share a bond with a million other people who write about their everyday lives.

And we become part of a family that gathers when there's heartbreak or tragedy and that celebrates together the victories and accomplishments.

The blog world. It's a beautiful place. Unless you've been there, you can't really appreciate it. The worst thing about it is that it's so captivating. As you become interested in more and more sagas and histories and updates, it consumes more and more time. But it's all good because through the blog world we're all evolving. We're learning and empathizing and understanding and caring about people we don't know and we're understanding different points of view that in another situation we would ignore rather than attempt to grasp.

Yes, the blog world is a beautiful place. And it's making this big, cold world smaller and warmer every day, blog by blog.

Look At My Birthday Present!

I love, love, love my new look. I was so excited when Beth called on my birthday and told me to take a look.

But I wasn't just excited about the blog design. I was excited about the phone call. Because it was my Beth, back again from a deep, dark place just out of my reach.

When we found out that we were expecting James and Jake, there were so many amazing things about what was happening.... not the least of which was that they were due on my birthday. Everyone knows that they wouldn't have been born on that day but it was part of the magic. And after their loss even I couldn't think about the day without sorrow. Part for the loss of the twins and part for the pain of my daughter. It was her pain that filled my heart with dread when I thought of July 20th and in my heart I knew I'd always dread that day.

Then, she called yesterday, and I know that it wasn't all sunshine for her, but she was trying to get past the darkness. And it filled my heart with happiness and love.

And I had a lovely birthday, the cake was delicious, I got to talk to all of my kids and my oldest granddaughter, and most of all, the company was Beth and her family, moving forward from another place.

It just might have been my best birthday ever.

To Blog Or Not To Blog

Hurray! I'm finally doing it! I'm glad I'm doing it and I think it's important that I'm doing it. I have a lot of unimportant thoughts about a myriad of uninteresting things that I need to put down in black and white. Otherwise I might bore my family and friends with them.



What's the impetus in my finally doing it now? It's my wonderful, blogger daughter. She's hosting a photo thing and I want to participate. Now I have to figure out where to go from here.



That's the thing about being in the sixties. What used to seem so easy has gotten a lot more complicated. I've always considered myself a fairly up-to-date 62 year old. After all I have a computer that I really connect with and I've figured out digital photography at least on a basic and very amatuerish level and I can email and file and write documents. But all of a sudden....YIKES! There are blackberries and iphones and ipods and complicated, advanced things that almost seem like too much effort to address.



But I'm 62 and I'm taking another step into the world of internet communications and I feel good about that. And now I have a place to write down all my unimportant, uninteresting thoughts. And I feel very good about that....because somewhere out there somebody might find them interesting and maybe even important. If not, I've got a diary. And that's good too.