Big adventure

Thirteen days after suffering a nondisplaced pelvic fracture.



Scale, context, perspective.

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There's an old saying in Naval Aviation.

"When life gives you lemons..."

No, that ain't it.

"When life gives you navy nurses..."

Closer, but that ain't it either.

"Look, I understand, but we got a mission here, so suck it up and drive on."

That's the one!



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There are days when my cup runneth over with good shit, days when my cup runneth over with bad shit, and days (most of them) when it runneth over with a pretty even mix. Regardless of the mix, there's always the mission.



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It's been a tough 10 days or so. I've had a bit of a winter bug, not enough to make me sick, but enough to make me feel blah-shitty most of the time. Every day I've got out of bed and married my flight sked with the air plan. And every single day, while I'm idling in the chocks and ready to go do good work, tasking changes and both the flight sked and air plan need to be reworked right now. By the end of the day those documents bear little resemblance to the clean copy of the morning. They're smudged and crumpled and torn and covered with colorful crayon scrawls.

And always there's the mission. So suck it up and drive on.



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Suck it up and drive on takes work and effort and involves no little pain. Those things happen in the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual realms. It's hard and exhausting and draining and painful.

Always, there's the mission.



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Working through the hard stuff -- sucking it up and driving on -- with an overarching goal of executing the mission.

That right there is life.



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I am immeasurably blessed.



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Good thing I know how to fall.



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I've been struggling with writing a Corpsman Chronicle. The who-what-when-where-why-how of the thing is easy. It's just information. I can write it all down just fine. What I'm struggling with is the flavor and the feel of the thing. For some reason it's been hard to, I don't know, slip back into the heart and soul of the guy who was there. That's where the tale has to come from. Without that, the story is just words. Might as well be a page out of a dictionary.

But it's coming back. Today was a good day.

Be well and embrace the blessings of liberty.