MOVE ON

This has been so hard for me to believe ~ My husband is not serving in the Army anymore. He hung his uniform two months ago and we bid a sad goodbye to the olive green forever. He is an ex service man now and that strips me of unofficial rank too. I am just a civilian wife hereafter.

My blog will still go by the name of the "Travails of an Army wife” though. I have no wish to change it. I spent nearly 18 years and most of my best adult days as a proud wife of an infantry officer. I am largely what I am due to the Army. Nothing can change that The travails too remain somewhere linked to the fledgling days as a writer in the frugal two room sets of the separated accommodation at Jaipur where it all began. I have no intentions of cutting that umbilical chord ,if I can help it.

I am certain opulence will never bewilder me, struggle never bother me, pain make me stronger, and death calmer…I have learnt the best lessons of my life in the folds of the olive green and I remain indebted to it for all the wisdom it garnered, the life it nurtured and the objectivity it mustered to temper me.

If I have the strength to move on today and serenely so it is because I was prepared for it all along. The soldiers who never looked back and trundled away in green trucks leaving ghost cities behind, their women and children too tired to cry taught me service comes before self. The loving faces that I bid an untimely farewell thereafter taught me nothing was forever. The tear streaked faces of their loved ones taught me life must go on.

And that brings to my favourite song at this important juncture of my life

MY FAVOURITE SONG - ABBA'S MOVE ON

They say a restless body can hide a peaceful soul.
A voyager, and a settler, they both have a distant goal.
If I explore the heavens, or if I search inside.
Well, it really doesn't matter
As long as I can tell myselfI've always tried.

Like a roller in the ocean,
life 's a motion
Move on
Like a wind that's always blowing
life is flowing
Move on
Like the sunrise in the morning
Life is dawning
Move on
How I treasure every minute
Being part of it, being in it
With the urge to move on

I've travelled every country, I've travelled in my mind
It seems we're on a journey, a trip through space and time
And somewhere lies the answer
To all the questions why
What really makes the difference
Between all dead and living things,
the will to stay alive...