My wife is stressing about being away from Sean and me this summer for training, but last weekend, I was the one who was on my own.
If you’re like me, you crave alone time: time with a book, time to make a dent in your project list, time to sleep in. I got a big dose of it when Danielle took Sean to visit her mom in Michigan for four days.
I had a stack of reading to do and some handyman tasks, and I was excited—right up until we got to the airport. That’s when my stomach sank right into my left shoe. Seeing the two of them standing in the line for the security check without me was just plain weird.
That afternoon after they left I tried to go to a few of my favorite places (the bookstore, Starbucks), but I just couldn’t get comfortable. I finally wound up watching an action movie starring Jason Statham while eating a pepperoni pizza and drinking a couple of beers. What a guy-like way to spend an evening, huh?
The next morning I woke up at 7:30—then fell back asleep until 9:00. I haven’t slept that much in a year and a half. The rest of the day went well, too. I got a lot of work done, and a lot of relaxing, but at the end of the day I was ready for my family to come back, and I still had two more days to go.
What I got was just a small taste of what it’s like to be away from your spouse and children, and it helped me understand just a little bit what it’s going to be like for Danielle when she has to say goodbye for several weeks at a time, or longer.
Maybe it’s cliche to say this, but we get so used to our lives being a certain way that we take them for granted. Life—especially military life—has a way of shaking things up for all of us, now and then, and showing us how things could be different.
And maybe that’s not a bad thing.
2 Comments
I feel the same way – my husband went TDY for a week of training, and I missed him the second after he left. He’s set to go to Korea in the summer for a yr, and that one week made me realize (again) how much I’m going to miss him for the 6 – 8 months before the R&R.. and again after that month is over.. until he’s home again for good.
However, one thing the military life is good for.. it shakes up our life, but it lets us appreciate our spouses more than most. I try to remind myself to NEVER take my husband for granted. “life is short, but sweet for certain” – DMB
My comment.
I can remember, just like it was yesterday, which we all know it was not, what it was like to have all 3 of my young babies home with me when their daddy went out- of -town on a business trip. Sometimes, he’d be gone only a couple of days, but then there were three day trips, and a couple of weeks when we had a transfer. It was hard, but we so enjoyed the getting back to normal after the trips.
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