The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
my daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.

My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
so I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.
The sound wasn’t loud, and it wasn’t too near,
but I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn’t quite know, and then the
sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
and I crept to the door just to see who was near.

Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
a lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.
“What are you doing?” I asked without fear,
“Come in this moment, it’s freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
you should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!”
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts…
to the window that danced with a warm fire’s light.
Then he sighed and he said, “Its really all right,
I’m out here by choice. I’m here every night.”
“It’s my duty to stand at the front of the line
that separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I’m proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at ‘Pearl on a day in December,”
Then he sighed, “That’s a Christmas ‘Gram always
remembers.”
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ‘Nam ‘,
and now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I’ve not seen my own son in more than a while,
but my wife sends me pictures, he’s sure got her smile.

Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
the red, white, and blue… an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
away from my family, my house and my home.
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet;
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
or lay down my life with my sister and brother…
who stand at the front against any and all,
to ensure for all time that this flag will not fall.”

“So go back inside,” he said, “harbor no fright,
your family is waiting and I’ll be all right.”
“But isn’t there something I can do, at the least,
“Give you money,” I asked, “or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you’ve done,
for being away from your wife and your son.”
Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
“Just tell us you love us, and never forget
to fight for our rights back at home while we’re gone,
to stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
to know you remember we fought and we bled
is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
that we mattered to you as you mattered to us.”

PLEASE, would you do me the kind favor of sharing this with as many people as you can? Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due to our U.S service men and women for our being able to celebrate these festivities. Let’ s try in this small way to pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make people stop and think of our heroes, living and dead, who sacrificed themselves for us.

LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN
30th Naval Construction Regiment
OIC, Logistics Cell One
Al Taqqadum, Iraq

A person asked Buddha:
“Are you a God?”
Buddha’s reply was
“No.”
“Are you an Angel?”
“No.”
“Then what are you?”
“I am Awake.” ]]> http://thinkactunity.org/poetry/buddha/feed/ 0 http://thinkactunity.org/poetry/do-it-anyway/ http://thinkactunity.org/poetry/do-it-anyway/#comments Sat, 15 Jul 2006 03:18:03 +0000 lovedriven http://lovedriven.myinfo.ws/wptgal/2006/07/14/do-it-anyway/ THE PARADOXICAL COMMANDMENTS
By Kent M. Keith

People are illogical,
unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway

If you do good,
people will accuse you of
selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway

If you are successful,
you will win false friends
and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today
will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness
make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women
with the biggest ideas
can be shot down
by the smallest men and women
with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs
but follow only top dogs.
Fight for the underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building
may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help
but may attack you
if you help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have
and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.

www.paradoxicalcommandments.com ]]> http://thinkactunity.org/poetry/do-it-anyway/feed/ 0 http://thinkactunity.org/poetry/desiderata/ http://thinkactunity.org/poetry/desiderata/#comments Sun, 07 May 2006 23:16:12 +0000 lovedriven http://lovedriven.myinfo.ws/wptgal/2006/05/07/desiderata-2/ Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

Max Ehrmann, Desiderata, Copyright 1952.