a shooting star

stars, though they seem to be mere glowing lights in the sky,

on friday this week, i caught my first shooting star backed by a nightsky full of stars. and i dare say it brought a smile to my face amidst all that fatigue and pain. at least thats one thing in the army that actually makes me happy.

mean a completely different thing to me.

and it seems that too many people seem to view this blog with skepticism - as if it were the reflection of an estrangled kid lost in the real world. my response is simple. this blog reflects the true experiences of my life and within the totality of that experience encompasses hurt, pain, falls and bruises, anger, disappointment. if one expects to merely read about joy and happiness then it defeats the purpose of writing. the beauty in writing is that of the suprises along the way, the joys blended with pain, making one more thankful for the moments of joy along the way amidst the hurt. a life of complete happiness only happens in fairytales.

life on THAT island

the entire army experience has opened up my eyes to accomodate a more comprehensive perspective. and the more you go through your army life you realise that it is impossible for civilians to comprehend the life that you go through.

on a side note, this brings to mind all the stuff ive studied about war lit
and it seems all the more true that people are starting to adopt that human behavioural instincts that i thought only existed in writing.
and how apt it is when bragg said

"when you go home, tell them of us and say
For your tomorrow we gave our today."

life in the army makes you thankful for many little things.

and it seems that fear dwells in all our hearts. today i feared losing a loved one, and i feared not being able to see them again. and it appears that at the crunch time we will all fear more than we expect ourselves to.

i dont want to lose the people i love.

food for thought.

"You have probably learned at school that it rains because the moisture in the clouds cools and condenses into raindrops that are drawn to the earth by the force of gravity... The 'material cause' is that the moisture was there at the precise moment when the air cooled. The 'efficient cause' is that the moisture cools and the 'formal cause' is that the form, or nature of the water, is to fall to the earth. But if you stopped there, Aristocle would add that it rains because plants and animals need rainwater in order to grow. This he called the 'final cause'. Aristocle assigns the raindrops a life-task, or 'purpose' "
-jostein.gaarder, sophie's world

I guess at some point if we take time to sit down and ponder about how our lives fit into those causes, we realize how blessed our hands are, how wonderful our minds work and how there is seemingly a moulded plan for each and everyone of us. and perhaps if only we take time to sniff the air and embrace the beauty of nature.

and they say 'vita brevis. carpe diem.'