Reprise, with Added Perspective

For those of you who don't know us well, Justin is almost 3 months into a year-long military deployment. Yup, we got married, had 2½ months of newlywedded bliss, and off he went. :( I posted the following on my primary blog yesterday.

"So, I have a pretty good life, you guys. I honestly can't complain much about how fate has treated me - a wonderful childhood, a loving family, a career I enjoy, and a husband who has made me smile pretty much every day of the 2+ years we've been together.

Still. This deployment thing is HARD. I can't give many details about what Justin does, but he leaves for a mission soon. My husband, the other half of my being, is about to be out of communication for awhile, doing something potentially quite dangerous. How could that fail to infuse my daily life with fear & worry?"

That blog has a feed to my Facebook account and within a few hours, I was lucky enough to have numerous friends leave kind, caring, supportive comments. One of them was from an old, old friend who is also married to a military man. Her whole comment was thoughtful & helpful, but the following really helped put things in perspective for me:

"Those 14 months were the hardest of my life, but I can honestly say it brought us so close together, made me appreciate all of the little things so much more...and dismiss those little annoyances with ease...who cares that his socks are balled up in the hamper?? He's here to ball them up!"

And that's just it. I tend to be an impatient person. The only people with whom I have patience are old folks & little people. I have the unflattering tendency to get frustrated with my husband easily. It's not something of which I'm proud and I've been working on it for awhile now.

But, his absence reminds me every day that I would rather have him here doing every single thing I've ever found annoying than have him 6,000 miles away. And, God willing, if when he comes back to me, I will treasure every minute of our lives together & let the little annoyances just slip-slide away. Most of the time, that is. I’m only human, after all. ;)