The Kitchen (A Message to Our Brave Canadian Troops Overseas)

It has been said many times that if you cannot stand the heat in the kitchen then maybe you should leave. When you signed up to give your very life and protect your Country did you think that this would be a walk in the park? Didn’t you know that each one of your days of service would be an eternal fight with yourself and for your fellow soldier, an epiphany that this is not what you thought you were signing up for? Didn’t you expect that every time it was time to set up camp again, and you questioned how can I summon up the wherewithal to go on one more day? Each time that you are called upon to be one step ahead of the enemy is one demand too much. One command too soon The intensity of heat of day no one can know, the chill of cold of night no one can throw on that extra blanket of comfort, because you have trained to be something that no one can understand, you are bastion of human endurance and no one may know the pride and admiration you hold of your Country, of yourself or your fellow soldier. You must now leave those things of simpler times and comfort to a past where you cannot remember, and only keep inside of you what drives you on, and for what reason those that have died before you have given your resolve unto. For this is the only thing which will sustain you. That and the truth that every moment that a smile exchanged, or moment of weakness overcome may be your last, know you there remains a shining peace within your reach. We are there with you where you hold us all within, and at the end of time still do you have our enduring debt, Our unending gratitude, and our unfathomable thanks for the freedom, and devotion that you bare within you always!