For Everything There Is A Season

My second tour of duty in Baghdad, Iraq has come to a close. Many friends and family still wonder why I chose to return to Iraq earlier this year. Certainly I wondered what was going on in my head. I was looking in the wrong place. My head and thoughts are not what drove me to return. It was something deeper with in me that I am not sure I have the words to adequately define. Prior to leaving, the best way I could sum up the decision was as a search for a missing piece of a greater puzzle.

This experience was much different from my first. I was not running away. I was indeed more concerned if not fearful. Emotionally I was simply in a different place. I felt like still water waiting to be moved, but fearful of it. Change of any sort usually makes us unsure of which way to move or whether to move at all.

A picture is most clear when the contrast is greatest. You know when Spring has arrived by the contrast between the barren trees and ground and the budding of the same. You know that summer has ended when the glorious greens turn multi color and flowers turn brown. The violence in Iraq was much greater this time. Contrast to the relative calm and color of the American landscape and things become more clear. Life does have a way of trying to show and teach us. The differences in myself thus became clear; distinct.

There is a certain calmness of the soul when one knows death is at your door. At first you fight it and want to control it. You are angry and confused and wish to be left alone. Soon acceptance comes and in a way you begin a dance with death. There are different types of death. Each of us goes through many “deaths” in our life time, we often don’t recognize them as such. The “death” of childhood, singleness, innocence and the list would go on. In each of these “deaths” there is indeed a “resurrection” of something new in us. Each season in our life comes and goes and is replaced by a more experienced season. My second season in Iraq has now died and led me to a resurrected life with more experience.

We prepare in many parts of the world to celebrate the birth of the Christ child, or in which we give honor and remembrance of events that have led us to this season in the world. For each celebration of birth we must recognize the death that provides the opportunity for birth or re-birth. Not only should we recognize that death, but we should celebrate it as it conceives new life...and hope.

There is much in the world that lies beyond our control. This should not leave us powerless. It should transform us in thought and in how we view ourselves, others and the world. The control we do have is how we view things. Each death we experience allows us to see more clearly our place and what we can do to make a difference in our world, one moment at a time. Our perspective is broadened.

For everything and everyone there is a season. It comes regardless. We can accept these seasons, these changes...these deaths and learn to dance with them or be angry and sit on the side. I’ve done both and I am choosing to dance.

May this season show you the blessings in your life and the lives of those you love.

Blessings and Peace.

Robert