Does a Tree Make a Sound?

You know the old question "Does a tree that falls in the forest make a sound if there is no one to hear it.?" The point was that communication takes a speaker and a listener. That's cool in marriage and family conversations. It takes sharing the speaking and listening parts so that everyone speaks and listens. They actually teach Active Listening so that couples can learn to actually hear one another. You know 'if I understand what you said it was ...." (smile, please). But I was thinking about sharing my thoughts about this work and some of my experiences. Like today I met a young soldier who had an adverse reaction to an inoculation and has lost use of some of her limbs for the rest of her life. She was doing so well, made me feel somewhat ashamed of my complaints. But does anyone read about it just because I write about it? I may decide to do mass emails instead? What thinkest thou? Dr. D.

Never a Dull Moment

To borrow a phrase -- working with soldiers and their families never has a dull moment. Life sometimes seems so boring and same. Days come one after the other. But I gotta tell ya, with soldiers one never knows what the day will hold. If you are Special Forces or Rangers that is really true. They sometimes go to work and don't come home. A message is sent to the families that they are on a mission. It is amazing, really, how they do it, even the senior soldiers who have been doing it for twenty years or more. So, every time I think that today will be too much for me, or that I'd rather be at home, I think of them and settle in to doing my mission. It is not dull to say the least. I was thinking that we can look at our non-military lives with the same sense of anticipation that today will be filled with wonder and love and even some uncertainty. Try it and as they say, you'll like it. Dr. D.