Ready for a Run

This is me ready for a run around the track that goes around the outer edge of our FOB. We always run in groups and never after dark. There are not many soldiers that like to run in this company, so it can be hard to find a partner, but I have managed to get out a few times.

I have learned a lot about myself since I stepped on the plane that brought us here. My squad leader from last deployment used to tell us that being on deployment for one year was equal to three years of training back in a field environment at home station. I believe it. So much can happen in one day. I always plan my own day and give as much direction as I can to my soldiers, but a dozen monkey wrenches always find their way in. Tasks come up. Equipment breaks. Priorities of higher bosses change. Murphy’s Law is in full effect over here.

I am also learning life lessons that will serve me well back in home town, USA. Cartographers used to draw dragons and sea monsters at the edges of the known world to give warning to sailors not to stray too far from the known. I feel like I am past the colorful warning symbols and off the edges of the map itself. It is out here on the fringes that life gains a sharpened meaning. The definition and value of life never changes upon location, for it is fixed, but life can reveal its intrinsic value when becomes apparent that it is possible to misplace or lose it. You may take your car keys for granted until you misplace them.

I am so glad that I have the restored gospel of Jesus Christ with me as I travel through this long and wide world. It will not allow me to be tricked by circumstance or situation as to our purpose here upon the earth, the value human beings have for each other, nor which of all the many roads will lead us back to our Heavenly Father and bring peace and meaning to our lives.