How do you recognize/support/comfort/etc. other injured veterans or SMs who are alone during holidays?

Yah as weird as it sounds..I am 40 ...and trying to figure out how to get out of my own little world..

I hope the holidays are well for you and yours.

Capt Tom Brown - I've always told my kids- who says we can't change the world? You gotta start somewhere, and I decided to start here.

GySgt Melissa Gravila - If you can not change yourself in a positive healthy way first then how can you affect someone else in a positive way. That is what I finally came to the conclusion of recently. Be a leader based on example first.

PO3 Aaron Hassay - absolutely- it took me a long time to realize that. I suffer from the classic "mom" syndrome (I put everybody else first- Myself last) then I woke up one day and saw that I can't say that I'm giving others 1000% if I can't give myself the same. "It ain't a crime to be good to yourself" When I "woke up" then I could give more to others because I demanded more for myself- make sense?

GySgt Melissa Gravila - That absolutely makes 1000% sense but only makes sense when you start to do it in action take care of yourself first which if done correctly makes you healthier thereby spreading health to others not just in money but in strong attitude and sense of self worth. But if you are always giving to others then you are basically empty inside as far as I can tell. How do I say this? Well military service 18 taught me to sacrifice before anything else not taking my own health into account before the team. That is great but again it can be a double whammy in that you are not yourself and empty your plate and your own mind of conciousness of you and your own worth and your own health. For example when you are hurting in the miltiary you never say such because you do not want to seem weak and not available for the team and the dream. But if you are really sick and not well and your body is telling you such in pain etc and you ignore such..then your health long term deteriates to the point where you are a burden on America the one you were ultimately protecting the whole time..which again is just a double brain screw..because this is not a good formula and should be looked at..

I probably also learned my always giving part from my single struggling financially ultra loving mom who raised me basically alone..

Later on after I had served it was discovered the real life missing information of my dads MIA resume actually was which included he was actually the whole time a 1966-68 Army Infantry Survivor Vietnam Veteran who had a kid before he became severely ill from such exposure..

Now with all that said...the systems that sent him there and did not take into account that he was a human with a heart that might attempt to fall in love and have a kid and the life of his new family before he became incapacitated from such exposure...

to my own blind obedience and sacrifice to to the same ideals...

yet I post this ad online of Rally Point..knowing that these systems are full of some loopholes that do not take into account the full life cycle when you ask someone 18 for EVERYTHING...their obedience commitment honor everything...

now I need to find out everthing about me...

and in that I am a real human...no matter if there is no christmas tree...

no matter at the same time that with an honorable discharge and no christmas tree the DOW almost reached 20,000 recently..

just a few things i take note of..

i do yoga now with that SSDI money of $900 a month and spend $40 for a 24 hour fitness and use the hot sauna everyday..and finanally untwist young now torn up muscles..that got knotted...and finally realize i am a simple human..that needs to love myself...

I stopped drinking 4 years ago...

i think if all Americans did this first..in a healthy way..well we would be better for the world and ourselves at the same time...

Yes it seems a small percentage of us in society swore the oath of enlistment to protect the Constitution. What a commitment it is. The internet was not around when I was serving mid late 1990s and early 2000s like this allowing conversation like this.

I think this community of SM and VETS needs to continue to become a community.

We are American Citizens first and we need to remember how unique our commitment and sacrifice is and was.

It is something I can not easily walk away from. It sticks with me more then I ever knew as I attempted to run and not talk about it for many a year.

Now that I am talking and trying to grow opening those doors I know there are others just like me.

I am trying myself to see how others are coming together and uniting.

This is for me a new beginning.

I hope the holidays are well.