Time to Think?

How do you know where you are if you can't see yourself on the map?  In other words, you may know where you stand, but finding that location in reference to the world around can be very difficult to do unless you can pull back to a point to where you can see both.  Being able to see yourself and the immediate world around you can be very very insightful, such as today.  I was on a nearby camp waiting on some team members to exit the PX.  I just sat on a traffic barrier watching the community of soldiers, American and British milling about the out-door market operated by vendors from many of the middle eastern countries surrounding Kuwait and it hit me!  I may be soon departing this environment, leaving behind these many individuals and their many missions, but whatever I do, wherever I go, I will never escape who I am and what I have become...a warrior, a leader!  Neither of which I chose, but what I am.  As I reflect on my recent past and approaching future, I am troubled with the thoughts of where do I fit in.  I am a husband, a father...a friend?  In the world I am about to rejoin, where do and where will I belong?  I am at home in hostile environments, where young men and women serving our country carry weapons and are not afraid to use them to protect themselves, but also the individuals on the left and on their right.  We are all joined together by a bond of war and hardships.  A bond where life or death is a normal as Starbucks and self-serving people move about believing they are important.  My initial thoughts envision myself as a tourist in a foreign land learning the customs of it's people.  How will I survive in this land...by living one day at a time and not getting caught up in the culture that rules this land, but by observing from a distance and learning and exploring.  What I need to remember is that the land I travel to, is no less dangerous than the land I am leaving!