8/30/2005
Thoughts in Solitude
American Soldier says,
This evening I took a break from the hectic routine I’ve been use to. Between putting final touches on the book and maintaining my everyday life. Things have gotten to be very busy for me. So this evening I popped the top of a very nice wine. Macon La Roche Vineuse 2002 Chardonnay was the exact name. I went out to my front porch and sat down. My wife bought me this custom wine glass from a faire a few weeks back. It’s huge! So I filled the glass to the top and took a seat. You can feel the weather is starting to change here. The wind lingers a little longer and it’s cooler. The sky was cloudy but I could hear the sound of an airplane flying in the sky. This is a typical sound in the area where I live. The person who fly’s it does crazy stunts in the air. On clear days you can see him barreling through the air like a bird.
I walked around my yard barefoot. Feeling the grass under my feet I took a deep breath of the air. It’s amazing how much different the air smells like just 20 minutes away. My air smells fresh and the air in the next town over smells like your typical city.
I thought about a lot of things and tried to make sense of certain things going on in my life. It’s weird how one moment you can think that this is all there is to life, and then the next thing you know something new comes along. I thought to myself that I am grateful that I was able to wake up and enjoy another day. My mind drifted off to my brothers in a far off country. I felt a bit homesick but happy at the same time. I have been able to keep in contact with some of them and I am so happy to get pictures of them from time to time. I came across a picture of one of my soldiers. He looked good and happy. That makes me happy.
I finished up my glass and walk back to my house. I turned and looked around and had this sense of peace come over me. I only wonder what will happen this coming year. I thought to myself.
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3 Responses to “Thoughts in Solitude”
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This reminds me of a couple poems we studied tonight in Ancient World Literature by a peot named Wang Wei (699-791 b.c.).
“Lodge in the Bamboo”
I sit alone in bamboo that hides me
plucking the harp and whistling long
It is deep in the woods and no one knows ~
the bright moon comes to shine on me.
and then,
“Villa on Chung-nan Mountain”
In my middle years I came to love The Way
and made my homelate by South Mountain’s edge.
When the mood came upon me, I went off alone,
and had moments of splendor all to myself.
I would walk to the point where the stream ends,
and sitting, would watch when the clouds rise.
By chance I would meet old men in the woods;
We would laugh and chat, no fixed time to return home.
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Both these poems speak of solitude, reflection, and peace ~ that’s why your post brought these to mind.
Speaking of literature… got lotsa homework tonight, so i gotta run!
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AS, you have an awesome sight. I appreciate that you have taken the time to put together the book with your views from the war. I myself have served for a long time now (in the Navy). But the stories of war and home are the same but different in many ways. Soldiers and Sailors alike, fighting the same war in many different ways.
I have to say that there have been many times I would wake up on a ship, before sunrise, do the daily things to get started grab a cup of coffee from the mess decks, go up to the weather decks and watch the sun rise. Just to take a moment away from the rest of the world to think that I have made it another day. To many thoughts go through our minds while we’re away to write down. To many things to worry about back home. But taking that one moment out of the day to bring us back to reality and that there other things in life that exist outside of the conflict that we are in.
Taking these moments keeps us sain. It is the simple things in life that bring the most happiness. Just ask any member of the military and I bet that they will agree.
Congrats, on the re-enlistment. Fair winds and following seas.