Invictus

For some reason, these last few days have been rather taxing on my soul. I'm almost half-way through a deployment and its starting to become obvious. I have to remind myself and my children, we've made it up the hill, we're at the top and on our way back down. When I have these days I have a favorite poem that I've loved for many, many years. Long before the movie. In particular its the last two lines I hold most dear.

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

William Ernest Henley

I find this poem applies completely to Army life. We make fight or flight choices every day. We can conquer or be conquered. But at the end of the day WE decide how our lives will go!