When you start to whine...

As you all know, Joe will be deployed to Iraq for a year. And maybe it's just me, but I felt like I should be able to complain about it as much as I wanted. Until I look beyond my nose and realized that maybe our situation isn't as bad as I imagine it to be.

I have a great family living next door to me. The 43 year old daughter loves Rigel and is always up for a chat. She thinks I remind her of her daughter. The wife is smart and witty. And the husband is 70, a retired Marine with more than 20 years in the military. We talked about Joe's deployment and a little bit about what he went through. I lived here for 2 months, wallowing in my own deployment sorrow not knowing the pain that was only a wall away from me. His name is Frank. He never drank or smoked. He's been a good person, dedicating his life to serving his country in a time of WAR not "conflict." Marrying a single mother and her 4 children and being the father they never had.

Frank has stage 4 terminal cancer.

The doctors have given him less than 6 months. He didn't say anything to me, that he was sick, for weeks. We walked our dogs and talked about Colorado Springs. Talked about a husband leaving his wife, selfishly assuming it was about my deployment, not realizing he was talking about himself.

So when you feel like whining about your situation, remember that someone always has it so much worse that you do. My husband is gone now, but I know he will be home in less than a year. So yeah, it annoys me when someone complains about their husband's 4 month long deployment to Kuwait. And how he doesn't talk enough when he's online.

But when I start to feel bad about our current situation, I think about the hearts that are in so much pain next door. Be sad. Miss your husband. But realize that the world keeps spinning around you. And appreciate what you do have right now.