Article I found

This is an article I found through the FRG group on Facebook.  It's a good way to look at things during deployment.  Take a look.
xoxx

DANGER: Deployment Construction

November 8th, 2010 by Jacey Eckhart

When the kitchen floor buckled in our first house, my husband opened a giant hole in the subfloor to fix the joist. I promptly fell right through. I knew the hole was there. Told myself to avoid it. Fell right through.

That’s how I feel about depresso days during deployment. I know the emotional hole is there, and still, somehow, sometimes, I fall through. Like I did last Tuesday. By the time I got into bed I was missing Brad so much I felt bruised by it. I pulled my pillow over my head and blamed the Navy. Without this stupid deployment, I would clearly not be feeling so bad.

But the longer I huffed the fabric softener, the more I thought that maybe—just maybe—the Navy was not to blame for my crappola day. Brad was not even to blame for my crappola day.

Yup, I missed him. Who would not miss such a good guy? But if I really looked hard at my day, I could see that I’d missed a dozen chances to feel better. I missed doing the things I know that help me shake off a bad day. I let myself watch two episodes of Tosh.O. A Bones I had seen before. The new Glee. That’s three solid hours of TV. I didn’t make a dinner and call the boys to the table. I fixed some stuff and let them eat in front of the TV. I didn’t do the yoga that helps my back. Didn’t walk the dog. Did not eat a single vegetable unless you consider potato chips a veg. ( I do.) I didn’t just fall into the hole. I started digging deeper.

So I got out of bed and ironed three shirts—not every shirt in the pile. Just the top three. I felt better. When Brad is gone, he leaves a giant hole in the life of our family. But it is a necessary hole. He is away working on the foundations of our family. So am I. I just have to learn to avoid that hole, or climb out a little quicker.

Jacey Eckhart is a military life consultant in Washington, DC. She is the author of “The Homefront Club” and the voice behind the award-winning Military OneSource CD “These Boots.” Facebook Jacey or contact her at jacey@jaceyeckhart.com.