A Glimpse of the Past......in the present......

The army life was one I thought I had seen the last of......until afforded a glimpse of my past in the present. When Aaron was enlisted in the military we lived a life unlike most everyone else....well except for those living the same life. We embraced the army life but what we discovered would far surpass all of our expectations.
The army life is shared by a community of others that are much like and much different than you and your family. It is a community of people that all come from different worlds....different values.....different beliefs and religions and traditions......different tricks and trades......different towns and cities and states and sometimes even different countries.....a HUGE melting pot of different and somehow in all of that different we find a common ground......the army. Our situations, while all very different, laid the ground work for what would become known as our lives. Somehow....while all so far away from everything that seemed familiar.....we became not just "friends" but we became FAMILY. I know it seems like that is a term that you just call someone you grew very close to but we didn't just grow close. We all learned to lean on one another for everything. Our lives became their lives and their lives became ours.....our children became theirs and their children became ours. Instilled in each of us was a primal instinct to not only love but to also protect one another. In those moments....in that simplicity.....that need to survive a bad situation where we had to move and start over AGAIN.....bonds were formed.......not just that but.......families were formed. Outsiders can't understand it......though, Lord only knows, they do try. The dependancy that comes with this family is VERY real......it is a relationship that starts on the basis of friendship and the distint ability to survive and blossoms into my family.
I thought this was a life I left behind when Aaron was medically discharged from the military. It was a thought or a memory that I would recall now and then over the last several years but not one I spent much time reflecting on because I figured that part of my life was over......gone.....in the past. Recently I had the opportunity to reconnect with my family and it was the first time I had seen them in about the last seven years or so and it was ABSOLUTELY amazing. We were all able to pick up exactly where we left off......it was as if time has stood still. Until today I had forgotten both how much I missed and needed my family. I am so blessed and so grateful to have been afforded this opportunity.