More Gratitude Give Me

As always, my family and I celebrated Thanksgiving this year. We did so with many of the usual traditions, my beloved wife’s from scratch homemade pumpkin pies, the slow cooked Turkey, the friends and extended family that came, the laughs, the odd food experiments and for me, the pondering of the words thanks and gratitude.

Shortly into my first deployment, in 2006, I first began to really ponder these words again and again. It started over some the worst turkey I had ever eaten, in the chow hall, on COB Speicher, Iraq. Now, I have eaten worse turkey since then, but this one was especially bad. Thinking about it now, though, that may have had little to do with the bird and more to do with the landscape. At the time I was a CPL in the US Army working in the S2 shop of my unit, and the only intel solider in our Battalion. I was made a CPL (which was rare at the time in my MOS) a few days before our NTC rotation, so I could order about two combat engineer SPC who were assigned to our shop. Though in truth it was probable so they couldn’t order me around since they had time in grade over me as E-4s. I had few friends at the time and due to our operation cycle, I didn’t have time to do anything besides work and working out. With my beloved wife and 4 children (the youngest born a week before deploying) at home. I, in many ways felt alone eating a bad bird, horrible machine-made pie and brooding to myself.

Needless to say, I was a little home sick, a little apathetic and worse, feeling ungrateful for all that I did have. Some time that evening, probably lying in my sack in the cold I was struck with a line from a Hymn, almost as though it was a prayer “more Gratitude give me” and I began to think what do I have to be grateful for. Staring into the dark, my list began, It started with all the things waiting for me back home, for the mission/duty I had that helped save lives, for my faith and many answers to my prayers. It got me thinking about my struggles and pain that helped me to learn, especially when I didn’t listen and for the future I had laid out before me.  I laid awake that night thinking and resolved to do better. Looking for the good and being grateful for the bad and by seek gratitude in all things.

A year later I was still in Iraq eating the second worse turkey of my life and eating only the fruit pies to honor my wife’s pumpkin. But, this time I was surrounded by battle buddies, seeing the blessing that I had and those that I would embrace a few months later. Things had gotten better, partially because I was looking for the better. That night I as walked back to my bunk, I found joy in the simple and it struck me how great my life really was.

I have tried never break from my resolve to see the good and the better, no matter how annoying it is for some to witness (an odd complaint I frequently receive). This gratitude has been a God sent gift, one that has allowed my family and I to push through the many difficulties of the last few years.

This last week, I found another parallel to the better in Gus, our mule friend (pictured above and below). According to our friends at Hope Grows Farms he doesn’t like going into the stables night now he would rather hang out in the shelter we built two weeks ago. To me that is an excellent demonstration of gratitude by our four-legged friend, Gus. I hope we all demonstrated gratitude this last week to those whom you love and to those that challenge you to be better. Both are what can make you greater than you now are. Deven Little