While I am on this journey and yes my kayak advertises my blog site the main reason of this trip is not me. It is the Veterans who are suffering mostly in silence not sure what to do or where to turn. It is about reach them letting them know hat there is hope out there and where they can get it.
It is about being compassionate as and towards fellow human beings. I have been telling everyone who will listen about the Mission the cause and why I am doing it.
It has become an active part of my dialog to inform people that Veterans make up 9%of the US population and that 18-22 are committing suicide everyday and that this number is unacceptable to me. That is why I am spreading the word and trying to raise the funds needed to help my fellow brothers and sisters.
S0 if you are following me and I have talked to you I know you are spreading the word and for that I will be forever grateful as will those we save.
Sometimes I think by using the term Veteran that people forget that these people are sons and daughters brothers and sisters aunts and uncles husbands and wives and cousins. They are the same as everyone else except and some point in our lives we wrote a blank check to the government that included our lives in the defense of freedom and democracy.
We have seen things and experienced things first hand that people should not have to but this is the price we paid. We took an oath without an expiration date. That was quite the commitment we took for our families and for you.
We are not nor will we ever be the same person we were before all this. Accept it as we have to accept it. For us it is much harder because there are reminders every day, noise, smells, words, etc. Wed try so hard to find some sense of normalcy but for some it is much more difficult compounded by old friends who no longer want to hang out with you, your spouse who doesn’t feel your the same person and that somehow you seem disconnected from the family. Your own family who will love you anyway but can’t understand what you are trying to explain to them because they never lived it.
I know what they are going through. I went to a counselor about my PTSD and what caused it. Because they couldn’t understand what I was trying to tell them because they never lived it I left even more angry than when I went in. But I find that by talking with one of my former buddies we help each other because we can understand the emotions behind our angst.
I am just asking people to think about it contribute a little or allot but please do something and get other to do so as well.
acske2017 