Watchfires lead the way out of PTSD darkness

Watchfires Lead The Way
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 19, 2014

Watchfires lighting the way out of the darkness of PTSD

Wisdom, compassion and courage
are the three universally recognized
moral qualities of men. Confucius

Why do you have PTSD? Why you and not someone else?

I am sure you've heard some kind of nonsense like it has something to do with you being mentally weak but that kind of rumor will always start with someone with very weak emotions. The stronger you feel love, happiness, joy and empathy, the stronger you will feel the sadness, grief, loss and regret.

When you risked your life for someone else, it meant you cared and so did the others you were with but some cared less while others cared more. Compassion is a gift the rest of the world depends on when things go wrong for them, but they are the last to understand what it does to the compassionate ones when they give all they have.

“But there was no need to be ashamed of tears, for tears bore witness that a man had the greatest of courage, the courage to suffer.”
Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

Had you not left your home, family and friends, you would not have experienced the conditions closer to hell than any other place on earth. You wouldn't have seen with your own eyes what horrors man is capable of or abundance of compassion spawn by the pain. You wouldn't be hurting if you were not there.

Today is POW MIA Day. Most people have seen the flag, the table ceremony honoring the memory of those who did not come home but there is another service that remembers the lost.

In the The Battle Hymn of the Republic Julia Ward Howe wrote "I have seen Him in the watchfires of a hundred circling camps" yet while the tradition was carried on by Vietnam veterans, it goes back to the beginning of this country.

Vietnam veterans have come together to build such fires according to the military regulations and specifications of the 1700s, when fires were used to help guide stray Soldiers home from battle.

Vietnam veterans have been lighting the watchfires for decades on helping other veterans find their way back from combat to living as a veteran. While what we call PTSD now may seem new to you, it is as old as the Bible itself. Anyone reading the spiritual struggles of David in the Book of Psalms can see it clearly.

Psalm 144
Of David.
1 Praise be to the Lord my Rock,
who trains my hands for war,
my fingers for battle.
2 He is my loving God and my fortress,
my stronghold and my deliverer,
my shield, in whom I take refuge,
who subdues peoples[a] under me.
3 Lord, what are human beings that you care for them,
mere mortals that you think of them?
4 They are like a breath;
their days are like a fleeting shadow.
5 Part your heavens, Lord, and come down;
touch the mountains, so that they smoke.
6 Send forth lightning and scatter the enemy;
shoot your arrows and rout them.
7 Reach down your hand from on high;
deliver me and rescue me
from the mighty waters,

In Vietnam, much like in Afghanistan and Iraq, the enemy hides within "friendlies" and they are hard to see but what is harder to see is the enemy hiding within you. More deadly than any weapon in the enemy hands, this is embedded within you. More veterans die by their own hands than have been killed in those wars. Why? Because you have not been trained to use the weapon you were born with.

It is your soul. Some call it the spirit. It holds everything you need to do with what you were sent to their earth to do.

Did you feel as if there was nothing else you wanted to do than join the military? Then that is what you were sent here for. The courage was paired with your compassion and both joined forces with your determination to endure whatever came your way.

The answer is within you as well.

You are not alone. There are other veterans all across the country waiting for you, watching for you appearing in the distance so you stop feeling lost and alone. They are waiting for your families too so that they can be helped to help you heal.

Members of Point Man International Ministries have been standing watch since 1984. They can help you find your way all the way back home so you can stand for others when their time has come to return to the One Who sent them here.

I am Florida State Coordinator looking for leaders right here doing what I cannot do. These OutPosts are run by veterans and are in small groups, much like a unit in combat. Home Fronts are for the families, like mine, so that families receive the support and knowledge they need for the sake of their veterans.

My husband and I are celebrating our 30th this month so it is not impossible.

You can get out of the darkness if you look for the light to show you the way.