Monday, August 5, 2013

Uh oh...

Once a week blogging alert!  Well, it's the end of a great weekend and I have lots to report.

The work week (ha ha) was a blur of paperwork and office visits trying to get the PCS order complete. Since SMS is coming in Spring 2014, I didn't think his DEA (Dependent Entrance Authorization) was that important to finish quickly.  WRONG!!  They actually won't move my stuff without it.



Fortunately, I can get my unaccompanied baggage moved without it but now the main shipment will lag my arrival in Japan by 2-3 months.  Great.

Anyway.  Boring.  Moving onto the weekend.  Yesterday, I ran a lot of errands.  Wait, how is this more exciting?  Well, I was doing errands and cooking in preparation for SMS' birthday picnic today!  His birthday is this Thursday and he has class so we celebrated today.  We had a picnic at Fiddler's Cove.  I made double mustard apricot chicken salad, a carrot cake and brought lots of snacks.  I also grilled bratwursts, which ended up being toasted in the flames of mini-grease fires.  We also rented paddle boards and most people took a short spin in the bay.

Earlier today, SMS and I went to a promotion ceremony that featured a talk by Louis Zamperini.  His story is incredible for the endurance and success in facing incomprehensible adversity.   The perseverance of the human spirit in the face of unfathomable, dehumanized cruelty is inspirational.  Afterwards, I felt a renewed sense of appreciation for how lucky I've been in my life and the happiness I have.

I finished a book tonight, The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman.  There was a passage at the end that one of the main characters recalls which highlights the power and transformation that forgiveness allows.  I don't know if I would be a good enough person to live this truth, but it is another way of articulating a deep truth.

"'But how?  How can you just get over these things, darling?' she had asked him.  'You've had so much strife but you're always happy.  How do you do it?'

'I choose to,' he said.  'I can leave myself to rot in the past, spend my time hating people for what happened, like my father did, or I can forgive and forget.'

'But it's not that easy.'

He smiled that Frank smile. 'Oh, but my treasure, it is so much less exhausting.  You only have to forgive once.  To resent, you have to do it all day, every day.  You have to keep remembering all the bad things.'  He laughed, pretending to wipe sweat from his brow.  'I would have to make a list, a very, very long list and make sure I hated the people on it the right amount.  That I did a very proper job of hating, too: very Teutonic!  No' - his voice became sober- ' we always have a choice.  All of us.'"

No comments:

Post a Comment