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The thankfulness of being "positively busy"

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I am thankful for my hero. My son, aka Badass MOFO.  A man who chose a profession which took him halfway around the world to protect others, knowing the potential harm to him. This is the second year in a row we will not be celebrating the holidays with him with us. Yet, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

This morning I ran a 5K. The worst one I have run all year. My time was super slow. I have had a nasty cold the last couple of weeks. You know the one…achy muscles, stuffed nose, coughing from deep within, and an overall feeling a fatigue. As if the cold wasn't enough, somewhere around mile two something happened to my hamstring. It was about then that Sean first crept into my head. Unbeknownst to him, he kept me running.  At the finish of the race, I made a beeline for massage table. Talk about pain! I did. I talked about it while dancing the Macarena with Sana and Patti. I talked about it when Tony told me about my time (horrible!). I talked about it during the award ceremony. And then the lady stopped the award ceremony in the middle of announcing a winner…

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have a Wounded Warrior, a double amputee, at the Gobblers’ Run today. He is just about ready to come down the hill. Please turn around and give him some applause.”

Sean walked with me in spirit as I did more than just turn around. We walked toward the hill together. Tears filled my eyes as so many realizations cascaded down on me. He was one of the last to finish the race, yet he walked across the finish tall and proud on his own two legs. Any pain I was feeling was forgotten. It took the humbleness of a hero reminding me what was important.
We hear about our military men and women coming back from war broken physically and mentally. We hear about IEDs, gunfire, and suicide bombers. Yet, there is so much more to these men and women than we realize. For war is not all about violence. It can also be about doing good for others.

Yesterday, I had a chance to chat on facebook with Sean for quite some time. After we finished with the “How’s everybody doing?” part of the conversation, I asked him what he did when he wasn’t working. As with many of us, it depends on the day. That particular day, he changed the tires on the Gator they drive up and down the mountain each day. On his upcoming to-do list are things such as put a winter door on the interpreter’s room “since it’s getting cold here” and put an antennae on the top of a tower. The other day, he met a Sergeant from the Afghan National Army. After the Sergeant found out what Sean does for a job, he asked if Sean would teach him and some of his men how to use their IED detection tools more effectively. Sean is working on making that happen in his time off. In Sean’s words, “I try to stay positively busy. I figure I am here to do good.”

Good is happening all around us. Even in the midst of the war, whether it be fought with bullets or metaphorically within us, when we realize we are here to do good, we begin to end the war. Today, I am thankful for being “positively busy” even as the war rages and the man who embodies it. 

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