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Inside Out May 2005, Volume I, Issue 3 |
| To read our blog click here or go to www.therelationshipcenter.biz and click on the "View our Web Journal" at the bottom of the page.. Read some of Kim's musing and add some of your own! |
A Message from Kim I believe that this issue has the potential to help many who are experiencing the pain of separation from a loved one who is serving in military service. While I realize that you may not be touched by this experience, I am willing to bet you know others who are. I am asking that you be willing, if you think it will be helpful, to forward this ezine to anyone on your email list who you know has a loved one in military service at this time. We often feel helpless about what to do to help someone who is missing his or her loved one under such stressful conditions. Perhaps the information that follows will help. Thank you for helping me spread the word. |
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In this Issue Upcoming Events ************************ Managing the Pain of Separation due to Military Service Peaceful Parenting Deadly Relationship Habits
Relationship Workshop Chats
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Kyle’s Deployment One of the most difficult struggles in life for a parent is the struggle that occurs when the parent is attempting to keep their child safe and the child is attempting to explore the world and find their place in it, often times not in the safest manner. A discussion of Inside Out cannot occur without me sharing some of my own personal struggles with the concept. Today is one of those days. I just learned that my nineteen-year-old son Kyle received his deployment orders. He just graduated from National Guard basic training last week and in less than two months, his Guard unit is being deployed for six months of training and then on to Iraq for a year. Anyway, Kyle made a decision fairly early on that he wanted to join the military. This was a surprise to me because I believed that, generally, young men and women enter the military who have some type of role model in the military. Since there was no one in my or my husband’s family who was in the military, I believed my children would not have the inclination for military service. Kyle began talking about being a sniper for the Marines at around the age of sixteen. Imagine my terror, thinking of him in dangerous situations when I had spent all his life attempting to keep him safe---mostly safe from himself as he has quite a risk-taking personality. Being a good Inside Out mother, I knew better than to try to talk him out of what he truly wanted, but secretly I’d hoped that by the time he was old enough to join the military, he would “come to his senses.” Now I’d like to say here that I totally support our troops. I know there are brave men and women putting their lives on the line for our safety and the ideal of freedom around the world, but as most mothers can relate, that’s OK for other children, just not mine! I’m well aware of the selfishness of that position, but it is what it is. Over time, Kyle and I had some discussions about his future plans. He was raised in rural Pennsylvania and had been hunting with his father from the time he was three. He has a natural ability for marksmanship. He is incredibly courageous and loves a good physical challenge. With all of these attributes, I know he sounds like a poster boy for military service. Still, as his mother, I’d hoped he would change his mind. I believe he made a concession to me when just prior to his eighteenth birthday he decided to join the National Guard, as opposed to the Marines. Part of his reasoning was that he wanted money for college but another part, in my opinion, was that he was just looking to prove himself as a man. I breathed a small sigh of relief thinking that he would be safer in the Guard. He would do his weekend a month and two weeks in the summer and have to respond to any situations in the US requiring armed service intervention. Was I ever wrong---along came the war in Iraq . I am not making any statements here about the efficacy of this war. I do not know if we are there because of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism or oil fields. I only know that our county’s young service men and women are being forever changed by their experiences there and I am afraid for my child. Today, Kyle told me with trepidation that he received his orders and will be leaving soon for eighteen months. He seems a little apprehensive but also excited. This is what he’s been trained to do. I am very proud of the young man that he has become but am terrified of the possible ramifications. How can he come back from there being the same person I know now, or worse, what if he is wounded or killed over there? All of this is going through my mind as I am writing but I know that I have to support him. I don’t want him leaving, feeling that I am not behind him 110%. What I truly want is for the war to be over, for this to be some mistake, for his unit to get stateside deployment, anything but for my child to be sent to Iraq as an infantryman on the front lines of the fighting. However, using Inside Out thinking, I have to first ask, what is within my power and control? I am not going to change the fact that Kyle is going to Iraq . Even if it were within my power to do so, he would not want to ignore his duty. So, the only thing left on which to focus is how I can be the person I want to be in this situation that I can’t control or change. What are my priorities? My first priority is to let Kyle know how very proud of him I am and that I support his decisions. After all, it is his life to do with as he sees fit. I did my part by keeping him safe these 19 years. Now, it is his turn to decide how he will live and I want to support the man he has become. Secondly, I don’t want him to be worrying about how I am managing while he is away. And finally, I want him to know that I love him and will pray for his safety every day. These are all things within my control. How will I do it? I find that whenever I am facing a particularly difficult situation, I attempt to look for the positives in it. In this situation there are many. Kyle is growing up and fighting for something in which he believes. He is developing principles that will guide his behaviors the rest of his life. His being in Iraq may help to save the lives of others. It will truly test his relationship with his girlfriend in determining whether or not they are truly committed to each other. And when I let myself think of the worst case scenario, which is him being killed there, I have come to remind myself that he will have died doing something he really wanted to do as opposed to living a long, unfulfilled life full of regret. If it comes down to it, will I be able to maintain that posture and position? I don’t know, but I do know that staying focused on Inside Out thinking will assist me in managing both my worry and my grief, if necessary. If you find yourself in a similar situation and are looking for ways to stay sane or just the support of others going through the same thing, then join our teleclass about “Managing the Pain of Separation due to Military Service.” Visit our website and check for the next scheduled session. You don’t need anything but a telephone to join this teleclass. Please join us so we can help each other. Copyright © May, 2005 Kim Olver. All rights reserved ****************************** If you are interested in receiving "Inside Out--- Business Edition", ****************************** “Love is the selfless promotion of the growth of another.” --Unknown This is a quote I love because it covers all types of love---the love of a friend, the love of a child or the love of your life partner. Think about what it actually means. Love is the selfless promotion of the growth of another. It shouldn’t matter what your desires are as long as the one you love is growing in the direction he/she wants to go; then you support him/her. This takes a great deal of strength and clarity of our own selves. A person who can love another person this way is rich in many ways. When we stop trying to control the ones we love to do the things that would be best for us, then their love for us will likely increase. This is the type of love I am attempting to nurture in my relationship with my son, Kyle, regarding his decision for military service (see feature article above). Conversely, this type of love can free us to understand that it is our own responsibility to move our own lives in the direction we want to go. This type of love is rare, precious and a true gift. Are you giving this gift to the ones you love? In this book promoting peace, Deepak Chopra, writes of the famous quote by Mahatma Gandhi, “There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.” Chopra makes a great argument for peace from the inside out. It must begin inside each of us until a large enough number believes and makes a global change in awareness happen. He calls for today to be the day that war ends. Wouldn’t that be excellent for our men and women in the armed forces serving in Iraq ? He analyzes why war is so prevalent and the reason we, as a people, resort to violence. He talks about war being an ingrained behavior or habit. It is an organized behavior to which humans resort in too many circumstances. In addition, it supports the archetype of good battling evil. The problem is that good tends to be defined by on which side you are standing at the time. He also points out that the advantages we enjoy today are mostly the result of war and aggression, making it difficult to advocate for peace. However, Chopra shows us how these ideas are untrue and that peace is the way. “We must not bring one war to an end, or thirty,” Chopra tells us, “but the idea of war itself.” Chopra shows us the seven-step path to peace in the world through daily practices of meditation, thought and actions on behalf of others. He believes that what one thinks about and brings into consciousness expands and so it can be with thoughts of peace. When enough of us focus on peace as the answer, the world will be transformed. “You aren’t asked to be a saint, or to give up any belief. You are only asked to stop reacting out of fear, to change your allegiance from violence to peace.” He admonishes countries that believe they have the right to impose their will on other countries. Ultimately, however, the ego itself has to be disarmed to live the way of peace, he says: "For me as an individual to be free, I have to confront myself with questions about who I really am, and this is done in large part by examining the layers of false identity that I mistakenly call me." This is obviously difficult to read and even more challenging to put into practice but what do we have to lose? Weigh that against all we stand to gain and the choice is clear. “Violence may be innate in human nature, but so is its opposite: love. The next stage of humanity, the leap which we are poised to take, will be guided by the force of that love.” Click here to order this book Copyright © May, 2005 Kim Olver. |
