Thankful.

As one of my colleagues called it - today was definitely a marathon. I was up at 3:00am and I'm hoping to be home by 2:00am.  I was a little bitter about having to travel at all today as I was initially scheduled to be on PTO. But as I reflect on my day and put it into perspective, I'm a little ashamed of my initial bitter feelings!

I was upset to miss 1 day of vacation while traveling in relative luxury. I was picked up by a car service this morning, sat in Economy Plus for my flights to Des Moines and I'm currently sitting in the Delta Sky Club waiting for my last flight home sipping a glass of red wine. Meanwhile, men and women around the world won't be home at all for the holidays.  When I think in terms of the sacrifices others are making, I'm both supremely thankful for their service and appreciative of my life and opportunities.

I think this little dose of reality was brought upon by an email update from my cousin yesterday, a Marine who is currently stationed in Afghanistan. Hearing from him about their work in counter IED operations makes my concerns about having enough overhead luggage space seem just a bit ridiculous.

So with that all said - thank you again to all our Armed Forces who are always in my thoughts and prayers but never more so as during this holiday season.