Memorial Day

Memorial Day comes and goes each year, and most of us observe it by having a three-day weekend packed with events, BBQs/burger burns, sporting events, and other fun activities. We might take some time to observe flags flown at half-staff or pause on the PBS broadcast of the Memorial Day Concert from Washington. But that's usually it.

As the years pass from the brief time I was in the Air Force, the more nostalgic I feel. I watch "my" Airmen as they gain rank, adding stripes and fancy titles, and "my" NCOs as they prepare to hang up their uniforms for the last time. I celebrate marriages and births and grieve losses with them, and I try to focus on the reasons that I trained to be a leader and officer rather than the reasons that developed for deciding not to stay in.

2012 and 2013 have been pivotal years for Josh and me, and we are starting to feel like we're back on track of plan A, though I admit that it's more like Plan A.99.b. or something like that - it almost resembles plan A, since we are living in a city, near one of our families, and we're doing jobs that we have both studied, albeit after our undergrad years.

In other ways, we have also mourned some losses this year, losing some of our connections to the oldest generations in our families. My dear grandmother, my dad's mom, passed away at Thanksgiving time. Josh's grandfather, his mom's dad, passed in January. Both of the grandparents were foundations in our families, and we feel their losses strongly at family gatherings and in our weekend habits.

This Memorial Day, we remember the path that we took to get to the points we're at -- not to say that we've arrived but to acknowledge what as occurred in order to have the opportunity to sit and blog about it. We remember the friends and family with whom we were close when we lived close by, and we thank you for the time that we overlapped.

I hope you're with friends and loved ones this time, and if you're not, I encourage you to seek ways to build close relationships with those who are around you. You might surprise yourself, like we have in every place we've lived, by the kindred spirits you find who are walking similar paths to yours, even if briefly.

Happy Memorial Day.

Thank you to the men and women who put on uniforms, thank you to their families, and thank you to the citizens that have supported them. Remember, you're never in this totally alone.