Who Will Serve

(In honor of those who have and do serve)

On A Cloudy Day… I looked through the windows of my soul and saw the rain…
I asked the question… was it worth it…?
Was it worth all the over-time? All the stress? All the sacrifice? All the pain? All the accolades of praise…?
Was the service to my country worth the ever lost time spent away from my wife my daughter… my son?…
How many of their parties I missed…? Those joyful celebrations of their lives… Of their triumphs I missed… I never saw…
Now…they are forever claimed by the archives of… too many… unknown memories…
I ask…who then will serve?
Who will seek to protect the wondrous privilege of freedom? Who else will bare the pain, endure the shame, play the games… To keep freedom’s flag waving in the sun… honored in the rain… Draped proudly over coffin or beating heart?
I looked from my soul and deep within my heart and saw the immense consequence of it all…
That our service is worth protecting freedom’s hope from the tyranny’s of hate and fear… that will ever drive this world
from peace into war…

Who then will serve…?
God help me…
God help my family…
I will…
I must…
serve…