Service Tails by Collins Ace;

Author:Collins, Ace;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Abingdon Press
Published: 2016-06-29T04:00:00+00:00

Maintaining Balance

Man maintains his balance, poise, and sense of security only as he is moving forward.

Maxwell Maltz

When a person is prevented from moving forward and experiencing life, the world shrinks. A shrinking world steals hope and happiness. It robs a person of enthusiasm, brings on bitterness, and throws a life completely out of balance. Even if you require help, you must continue to move forward as well as look forward to regain your balance.

Even in the days of Vietnam War protests and social unrest, at a time when millions saw the military in a negative light, two recent high school graduates from completely different parts of the nation answered the call to serve their country. Scott was from Michigan and signed up with the United States Navy while Philadelphia native Jenny opted for the Coast Guard. Their various duties took them around the globe, with Scott even serving in combat operations in the Far East. During those mosquito-filled moments, when snipers seemed to hide behind every tree and life always hung in the balance, all that mattered was living one more day. He had no idea that decades after his last tour in Vietnam and moving back into civilian life the war would come back to turn his world upside down.

After leaving the service in the mid-1970s, Scott and Jenny both attended college in Michigan. They met on campus and, after discovering how much they had in common, began dating. Songs such as “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” “You’re No Good,” “That’s The Way (I Like It),” and “Let’s Do It Again” provided a soundtrack to their days, and the two fell in love. With college degrees in hand, they married, so very anxious to start a life of their own.

Their occupations in the field of technology took them to Washington state. Living the American dream, they bought a home, became active church members, joined a few clubs, and started a family. Their friends described the Cawleys as having the hearts of servants. They gave their time, energy, love, and devotion to those who were forgotten, dismissed, misunderstood, or ignored. It seemed they never gave up on anyone. Their lives seemed to mirror that of the ideal 1950s and 1960s television families in every respect except one. Jenny and Scott’s home had room for more than just their birth children; they also took in kids others had given up on. Over the next twenty years, eight children would come to call them Mom and Dad.

Though there were trials and challenges to having so many children in their lives, and though they had to give up many material possessions others around them took for granted, the Cawleys had such an optimistic outlook that it didn’t seem to matter. They viewed their life work as giving selfless love in order to build others up. Thus, they constantly took steps on faith. Time after time those steps were rewarded.

In 1995, in the midst of soccer matches and school events, in the middle

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