AN ASSAULT TEAM

Life speaks to all of us.  We don't always hear.

As the wounded warriors pass through my life, I have come to realize that we all go through times where we don't feel blessed.  It is only later that we discover where the blessing is. Where it has been hiding, until we awaken to find it. The bad thing is not a blessing, but the misfortunes can be turned into blessings. 

For me, I am not unlike anyone else.  My mission, if you will, is to love these warriors through it.  I have incredible back up.  I have amazing dog trainers who aren't envious of each other. They are working together as a team with a mission. They quite simply see the job at hand, feel the anguish of the warriors, and go on about their jobs, training a dog to save a warrior.  I have an equally amazing head of TADSAW (Train a Dog~Save a Warrior) who gets it - the pain, the drive, the frustration, the passion. We all have gifts that no one else has.  Together we form an assault team.  Together it works, as we start to repair the brokenness one person at a time.

The courage exuded by these wounded warriors comes, but not always in a straight line.  I find myself asking repeatedly, where does their courage come from.   Preposterous as it might sound in a back handed sort of way, helping people with things that matter to them brings me some of the happiest days of my life.  A warrior who has experienced hell hasn't escaped from the horror of it, just because he/she is home.  This is the time when they send out a silent, or perhaps a not so silent, prayer saying, "Help me. I can't do it alone." This is when they pick up the phone and with a quivering voice ask us for help. Mission accomplished.

Then they find there is a dog, standing close by saying, "Show me what it is you want me to do."  It is then the answer comes.  Sometimes life speaks to us and we don't always hear.  It is bigger than the warrior and the dog.  It is about life lessons.  It's about struggles, pain, laughter, love, healing and about paying attention to those who need us the most.  Strangers living and struggling the best they can often give up.  It as at this time that we have no choice but to step in and give back.  Exposing and discovering the truth and filling their hearts with hope and a little dog has no guarantees, but it is all we have to give. 

But suffice it to say,  the odds are in their favor.  This dog becomes a secuirty blanket wrapped around the warrior.  Struggling with chronic depression, isolation, and fear, the warrior might find his dog upside down on the sofa wanting nothing more than a belly rub. Or standing at the foot of the bed with the leash in his mouth, as if to say, "Okay let's get outta here and talk a walk in the fresh air."  It is then that peace and sanctuary are found in the most uncomplicated unbelieveable place. You see the dog doesn't give up on the warrior. No matter what, they are team and there is a kind of recentering that takes place.  It is then that it is time to 'let go'.  It is then that we see that home has nothing to do with a house.

The dog provides a gift of freedom and shelter that these men and women so desparately fought for.  It is then that we all should gasp!  For it is then that we are looking smack dab into the middle of courage.

So for today...take a stand. Even if you are the only one.  There are people out there who are waiting for you, needing you more than you will ever imagine.

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"Great things are done when men and mountains meet."

~William Blake

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