A Little Lemonade

Life can get pretty dull over the winter months. Sometimes we aren’t able to enjoy sun for days on end. I enjoy sun!

Last week there were some SUNNY days! The warmth on our skin was soothing and the reflections on our floors and ceilings made for a lot of smiles! There was one day where we did not even need our parkas!

We took advantage of that feeling by making lemonade.

My youngest daughter washed the lemons. My oldest cut the lemons. We all squeezed the lemon halves.

My oldest suddenly started crying – she had a cut on her finger and the acidic liquid was burning it.

We washed it, and she went on measuring sugar and filling the rest of the pitcher with water to make that bitter juice sweet.

So it is with life. The last few months have been a season of busy for me. Just like the season of cloudiness, I felt less than sunny and definitely less than sweet.

I had a massive project due in an area that wasn’t entirely familiar and a major article deadline looming overhead when I knew I had to spend a lot of time researching. Both items were constantly hovering – in my thoughts, at the tips of my fingers – even pouring out of a fountain pen onto crumpled up paper while I took a walk with my kids.

This week, both projects were completed! I feel a little more like that lemonade and less like the lemon juice – and apparently, that shows! After church the other day, a woman came up to me to introduce herself to me and said I looked like such a sunny person. Me? Are you sure?  Perhaps it is that I can feel the spring about to bloom. Oh, there are still some blustery days to come, but there are beautiful spring days – I can smell it in the air, I can feel it in the sun and I can taste it in our lemonade.

I am going to enjoy the spring for now – the season of busy may have to take a break!

So incredibly proud of this man and BraveHearts

Words cannot express how proud I am of the young man featured in this VFW Magazine article.

I met him last spring while I was covering a story for the local paper. It was just an ordinary article – or so I thought.

I admit I was a little terrified going into this interview – I didn’t know anything about the Marines OR horses; he loved them both. I wasn’t sure what to expect – I really hadn’t met many veterans during my life. What I did know was that while he was fighting for my freedom, I was living a pretty cozy life, and I felt pretty small interviewing a man who had given everything to protect our country.

That day, I not only met him, but also about a dozen veterans who were riding under his direction that day. I was at a loss for words. I looked through the lens of my Nikon and photographed emotions I didn’t even know could be captured in print.

I am so thankful for that opportunity. In looking at those photographs, I can truly appreciate the bond between a horse and a human. And in these men, who fought for our nation, who gave so much more than their lives, I saw a peace. I witnessed that peace in their eyes, in their faces and in their postures.

Nick was willing to share his story – with Harvard, with me and, now, with veterans across the world. And I am so happy he did. He hopes to reach as many men and women as possible whose lives are affected by PTSD.

This is my first article with VFW Magazine and I am so proud to have done this with the inspirational and incomparable “Mr. Nick” as my children call him, the encouraging and remarkable Mr. Stratton who shared so much of his story with me – much more than I could ever put in this article, the unrivaled Meggan Hill-McQueeney who willingly lent her expertise and wisdom to this and the men and women who touched my heart and whose faces will forever be engrained in my memory – they are the heroes who pushed me to so fiercely pursue this.