Category: April 20th

Greetings to all you wonderful and special people.    

I don’t think I added anyone new this year, which is a sad thing now that I think about it, but for those of you relatively new, April 20th, 1991, is the day I got back from Desert Storm, and this marks the 35th

 year since I got back.  Every year I try to pause, collect my thoughts, and send out something noting the event to those close to me.  

Despite the lack of new email addresses – I may yet find one before I hit “send” – I do feel like I’ve made a little more contact with some people this year.  I also feel like with the world being the way it is, I may have lost some folks I share many, many fond memories with.   

I haven’t forgotten what it was like to sleep on a cot under a burlap tent in the absolute middle of the Saudi Arabian desert trying to see how many biting flies we could kill in a day between battle drills.  Nor have I forgotten the hundreds of letters and packages and emails I got back then… and again in Bosnia… and again in Iraq… and the people who watched out for my world while I was gone, and welcomed me when I got home.  And I haven’t forgotten all those of you who were there when I needed it, whether you knew it or not, and I think every day about how very, very lucky I am to have the life that I’ve had, with people like you in it.  

And so again, this world continues to send out obvious reminders on why keeping up with people is important.  People close to you.  People who have shaped your life, people who have been there for you, people who have allowed you to be there for them.

That would be you.  

I have said for years that I don’t deserve my happy extended family and friends list, and I still believe that to be true. I sincerely feel that I am far far more lucky in my circle of people I have known than just about anyone out there has ever been.   

And so, again, as is my tradition, I want to thank you for being in my life.  Whatever our relationship was and is, I hope it grows in some way, or at least I’ve given to you some amount relative to what you’ve given me.  

Happy 35th, and also, find a friend or family member you can and hug them today.    

Sincerely I thank you. 

–Steve

Thirty three years ago… a third of a century, I got off a tan school bus onto a field at Fort Hood and was nearly bowled over by my mom running through the crowd and tackling/hugging me.  My uncle drove up in a car with one of those old rotary phones physically attached to his car so my dad could call, and I posed for pictures with loved ones holding a can of Sprite under a big “Welcome Home Steve” banner.  I had dog tags woven in my boot laces, and candy in my pouches where kids stuffed it as we passed through airports on the way to Texas.  

And it feels necessary every year to pause a moment and – combined with some glancing back through old pictures and occasionally notes and letters – reflect on all the people who were in my life then, and have joined it since.  I retired from the military five years ago now, and while I miss the Army, whenever I go down the list of people on the address line of this email, I am perpetually met with the sting of all those I have not kept up with nearly as much as I would like or you deserve.  You’re good people.  

It took me a while to realize that trips and events and vacations and whatever other adventures I got myself into were very very pale and shallow if I didn’t have at least one of you along with me to share it with.  By myself, it is a sort of boring story, but with one of you, it is a real memory.  And I treasure all the memories I’ve created with you in the past, and any memories I am fortunate to make with you in the future.  

I have been so so lucky, in so many ways, and so, as is my tradition, I thank you, deeply and sincerely, for being in my life.  Feel free to reply back with any thoughts or memories you have, and I will do my best to keep treasuring all that I have.   

All the Thank Yous

All the Feels

All the Memories

-Steve

Hello to all of you wonderful people

As has been my custom each year, I’ve tweaked this list a little, having added some lives to my world, and lost some others, and prepared again for April 20th, the day that I got home from Desert Storm now 32 years ago.  It’s been my goal every year since then, to pause on that day and thank everyone who has given so much to my life.   

Originally, way back in the day, I would just print out a single related image in black and white dot matrix, or a list of people, and just spend some time going through whatever old pictures I could find that would remind me of the people in my world.  

Nowadays, the technology has made it easier to reach out, but it is still a difficult thing to make sure I keep up the list of names, add and subtract when necessary, and capture the significance of how I feel about it.  

I am humbled going through all the files of pictures, or little bits of memorabilia, dusting off all the memories that have helped make every day of the last 32 years better in one way or the other.  I have never had the best memory, which stings a bit given how important my memories are to me, and so I always welcome a chance to relive or retell any bits of my past I’ve spent with some of the truly great people I have met along the way.  

So again I say thank you for being in my life, thank you for being there for me, in whatever capacity that is.  Thank you for letting me getting to you know you, and for caring enough to know me.  

And if you get a chance, and are so inclined, drop me a memory, or a picture, or some hint of how we used to be.  I promise I will treasure it as much now as then.  

Whatever our relationship was and is, I hope it continues to grow in some way, and I hope that I’ve been able to give back at least some of what you’ve given me.  If you get a chance, I recommend you take a pause and look back.  Find a person or a moment that helped you get where you are now, and thank them too.     

Sincerely as always, I say thank you. 

–Steve

Hello to all

As I do every year, I have added a few people to the list, and removed a few, so to catch up the new folk, April 20th marks the anniversary of the day I returned home from Desert Storm, now on its 31st iteration.  I have tried, every year since, to pause on that day, to breathe, and to take a moment to appreciate those close to me.  

As I age, I’m sure that there will be times where I feel that this list is losing names faster than I can add them, but the truth is, every year there has always been a new name or two to add, which sort of brings me to my point.

I have been very lucky to keep making new friends, close friends, and even luckier to keep the ones I’ve had in some cases for a few months, in other cases years, and a few select individuals for decades.  

And with each person who has happily joined my life, each of you, I have changed, almost exclusively (although in many cases slowly) for the better.  Within this list of names I have found encouragement to do hard things, and inspiration to do more things than I would have on my own.  

So thank you.  Thank you for being there for me, in whatever capacity that is.  Thank you for letting me getting to you know you, and for caring enough to know me.  

Life would be harder without you.  

I almost certainly don’t deserve you, and every day I think about how amazingly lucky I am in those I have crossed paths with and let into my life.  Whatever our relationship was and is, I hope it continues to grow in some way, and I hope that I’ve been able to give back at least some of what you’ve given me.  If you can, find a friend or mentor or family member you can and hug them today.    

Sincerely I thank you. 

–Steve

Some of you have been on this thread since the dawn of email, and while I’m glad to be able to say I was able to add a few more people this go around, it also seems like it is getting more and more frequent that I have a remove an address of someone who has passed away.   

If you don’t know, today marks the 25th anniversary of my return home from Desert Storm, and I like to take a pause this time every year to think about all the people in my life, past or present, who have helped – deliberately or not – shape my life.  

I know this is only an email, but it is a heartfelt one, and one I think about for weeks as it approaches, reminiscing about how things have gone so far, and everyone along the way.  Everyone has complications and stress in their life, and I have no complaints.  However, what has helped me through whatever troubled moments I do encounter, are the people in my life, either in person, through a passing email, or just through an occasional wonderful memory.  

So for the 25th year in a row, I want to thank you for being in my world.  It means a lot to me.  

-Steve

Here’s to another 25 years.