In looking at coming home and preparing Soldiers and Families for reintegration I will begin to write articles on Resiliency in our Newsletter. Resiliency is the new buzz word for the Army. We have the new Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Program, the Sky Soldiers Resiliency Matrix and even a Brigade Resiliency Team. There are a lot of people spending a lot of time and money to make our Soldiers and Families are resilient. So what is resiliency? One definition of resilient

compressed or stretched and then returning back to your original form. It sounds a bit like Silly Puddyapplicable to us because I think it is safe to say that many of us are being bent, compressed or stretched, much like Silly Puddy, and we all would like to make sure that we eventually get back into shape!

June  2010 Vol.1  Issue  6

In Colossians 2:6-Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught and

present in spirit and delights to see how the people are doing. Paul is reminding them of who they are and what they aspired to be when they first came to know Christ. In other words even though you have been bent, compressed or stretched; even though we are absent from one another in the body and things are difficult, remember who we are and what the whole purpose is.

My friends it is easy for us all to get lost in the difficulty of our current circumstances and the tyranny of the urgent. However we can make it through by keeping the main thing the main thing, by sticking with the basics and remembering who we are. Remember the love you had for your spouse when you were first married or dating, remember the reason you had children, remember the dreams and goals you had for your life, remember the reason you joined the Army and continue to live and serve with that same zeal aiming toward the goals we had when we began.

Resiliency does not mean that we will not go through tough times or that we will not change. Resiliency means that even when we are stretched, very thin at times, we can still come back together; we return to our original form. We do that by remembering who we are, remaining focused on the goals and dreams that we started with and using the maturity and experience we have gained in order to get us closer to who we want to become. Semper Gumby! That is what being Resilient is all about!

Sky Soldiers! CH Michael Turpin