The dream started when I was a kid. I remember the first time I had it. I was sick (again). I had a fever and had fallen asleep on the couch in the front room. My oldest brother had gone into the Marine Corps. I don’t think at that age I really understood anything about the Military other than my brother was gone & the person who used to eat the food I didn’t want to so I could get up from the table was gone. And of course, in my mind, if you were in the military, you went to boot camp and then you went off to war.

The dream was always the same – my brother in a hole pointing a gun at the enemy.. lots of noise. Men screaming in pain, gunfire, foreign languages and English mixed together. Then all of a sudden it’s quiet and I can see my brother – tired, dirty walking upstairs. Not just any stairs. Stairs made of clouds the colors of sunset. Soft billowy clouds that cushioned him as he walked towards God’s outstretched hand dust & mud falling off of him with each step. As he got closer to His hand, the dream ended. Just faded away to black. The first time I had that dream I woke up in tears. No different from the last time I had that dream.

It keeps coming back to me. The only thing that changes are the people. Always the people who I love. My Military family members have all been in the dream, playing the starring role. Mostly it’s my brother-in-law because he’s a “lifer”. More recently my nephews. Where I used to think the dream meant doom and death, I now believe that it’s telling me that God has my family members back. That He is taking care of them, guiding them and will return them home safe. Now when this dream wakes me and the tears are there, they are tears of relief.

I have always been partial to the Marines for obvious reasons. Not that I don’t appreciate the other branches, I truly do! But I can spot a Marine from a mile away! My husband is an ex-Marine, my brother ex-Marine, my brother-in-law lifetime Marine and I wanted to be a Marine. Yes, ME!

Needless to say, anything that I have that represents the Marine Corps, I treasure. My sister & I went to visit my brother-in-law at work one day and in his office was this footlocker. I was drawn to it, instantly fell in love with it and HAD to have one. So we went shopping. It’s personal to me. There is no spot good enough for me to put it out in the house because it’s so personal. So it sits in our room where I can see it every day. I put my other little Marine treasures inside of it. To me, it’s beautiful. To someone else, it may be just a box.

I had the pleasure of shooting my footlocker. So important is this footlocker that I made sure to shoot in the morning in order to give it the best light I could.

My muse for the day.

A quick shout out to those that I love who do or have served. You are courageous and I have more respect for you than you will EVER know. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Semper Fi