A Military Man's Promise

I cannot promise you every night of my life. I
cannot promise to be beside you for every difficult moment, every trial, and
every hardship. In truth, I can promise you that I will not be with you for
most. I will leave you at inconvenient times. Any special date to us may be
tainted with the anniversary of the death of one of my friends. I will ask you
to take over what...ever life we have built together for months and years at
a time. And will then crash back into that life that you have used your sweat,
your tears and your heartache to keep together, and try to take it back as I
knew it before.I will shut you out at times because it will be the best
way for me to hold it together at that moment. I will lie to you. I will tell
you I don't know things when I do. I will not always tell you where I am going,
when I will be back, or who I am with. I may not call you for weeks and months
and you will not be able to call me. You will ask questions that I won't answer.
You will know answers to questions that you will hope you never need.I
will share things with my brothers that you will never understand. They will
know things about me that you never will. They will be a support to me in some
things that you cannot be. I will miss birthdays. I will miss anniversaries. I
may need time to process things that seem natural to everyone else.It
will seem that someone -or something - will always take precedence over
you.I will uproot you and ask you to re-establish our family anywhere in
the world, in any season, at any time - over and over again. Sand and mud will
be tracked through your halls from the boots I am too tired to take
off.I will leave you when you beg me not to. I will stand at attention
while you cry beside me. I will not turn my head and I will walk away. I will
knowingly break your heart. And I will do it again -and again. I cannot promise
you all of me. I cannot promise you much of anything.But if you will
have me, I can promise that as I march away from you, it is not without sharing
your heartache. I promise you that every time I break your heart I will be
breaking mine. Every time that I cannot answer you I will be protecting you.
Whenever you want to call and you have no number to dial, I will be wanting to
do the same. I will protect everything that we have created together with every
fiber of my being while you do the same back at home. I will honor you in
everything -every moment that we are apart and every moment that I am with you.
I will fight harder and push further knowing that I do so for you. And I will
carry you with me in everything, until my sandy boots once again sit just inside
our door.

-Written by: Megan Williams
http://toloveasoldier.blogspot.com/2011/02/promises.html

XoXo-Andrea Carla