Comforting Embrace

My brother-in-law sent me this clipping via email. I realized you just don't get stories like this too often. Here's a man, probably away from his own children for months, offering solace, compassion and comfort to a child he doesn't even know. We should not be there? Insurgents, wonderful, God-fearing Muslim insurgents, killed this girl's family and shot her in the head. Wonder if God is still having pride in these animals calling Him great.

Remember, if our soldiers weren't sacraficing so much to fight these bastards in a far away land, this could be any one of our children this stranger is holding in Anytown, USA. I know, someone is saying "if we weren't there, then this wouldn't have happened." Wrong. It happened every day in Iraq under Saddam. The difference is then we could turn our blind eye to it. Now, it makes news.

Thank God for men and women like this soldier. I am sure this man could kill if he had to, but the compassion he shows here is testament to humanity and to an America few get the chance to see. I believe there are more people like this man in my country than there are of the mentality and brutality of the insurgents and terrorists we fight. This is NOT our Vietnam unless we turn it into one.

Same old new day?

Did you ever just wake up with a revelation? I did, and it revitalized me yet again. Today will certainly not be the "same old new day" for me!

First, when my eyes opened for the very first time this morning, the first thing I saw was my wife. Now that may not seem all that stupendous to you, but you have to understand some things in order to get why it is an awesome thing to me.

See, I snore. I snore loudly. Call it the weight gain, or the lack of exercise (all of which will change on this new day), or just my innocent way of torturing those I love, but the truth is whatever you call it it surely annoys my wife when we sleep. So, in the essence of maximizing her already depleted sleep schedule (a toddler and 3 month old will do that to you), she has this method of making me turn my head the moment it turns it's ugly way towards her. She must have this internal alarm that sets off the moment my head makes it's way in her direction. I call it an internal alarm, she calls it a freight train coming out of my mouth.

You also have to understand my wife is beautiful. Not just in the "you are so beautiful in the inside" kind of way, but in the "wow, that's hot" kind of way. So to wake up with this awesome sight filling my brain is to illicit feelings that, no matter how hard I would try, just aren't going to be addressed in quick fashion (she kills early birds for a late breakfast). One reason I don't play the lottery is because I believe I already won it the day she married me, and to think I could win again would only be tempting fate. Honestly, I could be poor and not have many material possessions, but her hand in mine would make me very, very wealthy.

Well, off to the gym. Nope, no pressure here to be hard and sexy, lean and muscular. Just the realization that I want to live this life as long as I can in order to enjoy this quite different new day over and over again.