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Re: ALL THINGS CHRISTMAS! Please share your Pictures, Family Stories - Memories and Recipes! My Invitation is Extended to Everyone. God Bless Us Everyone! 12/6/2007 12:40:16 AM
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Hi Pat,
Ooooooooooo...........this is so beautiful. Of course, I knew it would be...hehehe
Merry Christmas to All!
The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room
and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of
white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights
in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My
eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I
would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I
slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.
The sound wasn't loud, and it
wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps
just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then the
sure sound of footsteps outside
in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept
to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark
of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A
soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here
in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing
watch over me, and my wife and my child.
"What are you doing?" I asked
without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down
your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold
Christmas Eve!"
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away
from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..
To the window that danced with
a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night." "It's
my duty to stand at
the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my
fathers before me
My Gramps died at 'Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he
sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers"
My dad stood his watch
in the jungles of 'Nam',
And now it is my turn and
so, here I am.
I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my
wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he
carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American
flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my
family, my house and my home.
I can stand at my post through the rain and
the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry
the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and
brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for
all time that this flag will not fall."
"So go back inside," he said,
"harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But
isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked,
"or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've
done,
For being away from your wife and your son."
Then his eye welled
a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never
forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To
stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either
standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is
payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you
mattered to us."
PLEASE, Would you do me the kind favor of sending this
to
as many people as you can? Christmas will be coming soon
and some
credit is due to our U.S.service men and women
for our being able to
celebrate these festivities. Let's try in
this small way to pay a tiny bit
of what we owe. Make people
stop and think of our heroes, living and dead,
who sacrificed
themselves for us.
LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN
30th Naval Construction Regiment
OIC, Logistics Cell One
Al Taqqadum,
Iraq
I continue to pray for PEACE ON EARTH :-) Hugs, Jill
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