First Steps

I am starting this blog at the beginning of a deployment. At the beginning of a new year. At the beginning of my marriage.
I am starting this blog at the start of a new phase in my existence, or as Oprah would say - the next chapter of my life.


Life is about change.
Life is constantly changing, but in my life the changes just seem more abrupt.
One day Tag is here, and we are drinking coffee and listening to music and fighting over the hot water in the shower, and the next day there's no coffee and it's quiet and the water never gets cold too soon.


This is not my first deployment. In the four years we have lived in this house Tag has deployed every year. For five months, for six months, for three. Each deployment was different, each deployment was the same.
Each deployment I set myself some goals. Some I met and some I failed, but the point is in the trying.


I named this blog after a children's book called "Little One Step." I read it in 30 seconds in a discount store while shopping with my mother last November, and it changed my life forever.


I should have bought it.


In the book by Simon James, you meet a trio of ducklings who must cross a field in order to return to their mother. The smallest duck is tired. She can't go on. Her brother suggests she just take one more step, and then another, and then another. By focusing on taking just one step at a time, our little duck is soon reunited with his mother.


I started saying this to myself when the path ahead seemed impossible.
When I was weighted down with 100+ pounds of scuba gear and I had to walk 40 feet into the water I said "One step. One step."
When I was climbing to the top of yet another Mayan ruin with stairs half the size of my body I said "One step. One step."
And today when faced with another half-year alone I looked at my life and said, "One Step."
Today I took a shower. Today I ate two full meals. Today I cleaned up the kitchen. Today I started a blog to keep myself encouraged.


So here we are.


I don't quite know how I'll fill this blog, and I can't promise it will always be very insightful, but I hope you'll join me for the journey. That way I won't feel so alone.