It is important to remember that more than just the soldiers are affected by the stresses of combat. Their families often times sacrifice more than we can ever imagine. This is why it is extremely important to offer such "Support Group" programs that involve not only the returning soldiers, but their families as well.
This program also pairs soldiers with fellow veterans that have gone through the same program, and in turn allows them to talk with someone that has gone through the same battles they have.A few years ago a company I was working for sent me to a management training class. It was an amazing class. In addition to teaching me how to improve my interactions with my employees and customers, it also made me take a look at myself. I had to define my management style, create a list of my core values, and write a plan for bettering myself as a person, all to realize my potential as a manager. And I got to watch FISH! again!
I recently came across the folder from that training, and the list of core values and goals I set for myself. Now, these weren’t short term goals, theses were lifetime goals. One of them stuck out …
Leave a legacy.
It’s something most people hope to do in their lives. Some people’s legacies are their children, or the work they do that changes a process, or how they touch other’s lives. What is my legacy going to be? It only seems natural:
Water.
Water has been a huge part of my life. As a child swimming every weekend in the great lakes, as a dive master in the Caribbean, on ships, hard hat diving in the gulf. I love water, and I’ve been lucky enough to have an abundance of it in my life…
But many people don’t. I’ve seen the devastation that is caused by a lack of water, women carrying water from wells miles away for their family, children sick from drinking tainted water. I can fix that. I can make a difference. I found out that $10 can give one person fresh water for 10 years. Really. But that’s not enough. I found this site thru change.org:
The Water project lets people help bring fresh water to schools in Africa and India. Each well services the school and surrounding community, and can bring fresh water to over a thousand people. And each well… well, it only costs $5,000. That’s right, $5,000 will give hundreds, if not a thousand, water for at least 10 years.
I’ve found my legacy, the pickle jar is already starting to fill up.
What’s yours going to be?
It’s a bright and sunny Sunday morning, mother’s day in fact. I’ve been up since 5:30 baking bread, marinating meat, and getting the grill ready for the family to stop by. Cup o’ coffee in hand, I sat down to watch some TV, when the Rottweiler came up and put her head on my knee.
If you have a dog, you know. Thru good times and bad, happiness and depression, and life in general, that dog is the one who keeps you grounded. I try every day to be the man my dog thinks I am.
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