Senses Working Overtime

To paraphrase an old song by the band XTC, my senses have been working overtime as of late. Granted, I have not been working overtime, but my senses definitely have been.

It's funny how the body works. I think I eluded to this a little bit in a previous entry as to just how the body comes to remember patterns and goes about re-adjusting and falling back into set routines that were thought to have been forgotten and are now once again as common and ordinary as walking and talking.

My body is none worse for the additional wear and tear it has been burdened with. Although I have not found myself at the gym banging the irons or slapping the plastic mats of the running mills, I have been walking close to 3 miles a day all over the camp and at different times of the day. Trust me! A walk that is a half mile long when wearing an extra 30 pounds of protective gear can seem like an eternity when its close to 120 degrees in the sunlight!

I am losing sight of my focus here - the senses...

I have come to find that being in a "combat zone" definitely heightens your ability to stay aware of certain situations. I don't how to aptly describe it because it seems to be a mix of so many chemicals and emotions that I am at a loss to even begin to try and explain it. There is something that is both appalling and alluring about the military mans reliance and acceptance to certain dangers. The inherent dangers later become tales of dashing and daring rescue - moments of heroism or complete hysterics. The word "excitement" has a tendency to become lost in the mix of adrenaline and fear and thus becomes just another part of the ordinary and everyday scenery around the camp grounds.

My senses have gotten attuned to the point that I am able to recognize the changes in these abilities much like a superhero would recognize their special strengths.

For example, when it comes to my nose, many years of city life have rendered it mostly inoperable due to the many allergens that keep my sinuses readily filled with an overabundance of drainage. Coming to Africa has been a total "God send" for my aching nose. My allergies are almost non-existent here. Partially due to the fact that there isn't much growing here and the realization that I have not been previously exposed to many of the plants here in the area, thus reducing my body's ability to develop an allergy to the abundant spores, pollens and molds within the Horn of Africa. Thus, with my nose at almost 80 percent operational status, I can catch any waft of a smell that happens to be floating on the breeze, identify it or follow it to its point of origin.

My sight has always been fairly good. My peripheral vision has become quite adept at catching even the smallest movements out of the corners of my eyes. I have been able to identify the smallest of flying bugs and the swiftest desert mice as they scurry and run at all hours across and through the tents of the campsite.

I am able to wake-up on time and without the use of an alarm. I tell my body before I go to bed what time I need to get up at and 90 percent of the time I am within 15 minutes of the time I had previously requested. Just to be safe, while in the dark confines of my womb-like cocoon of a tent space, I do set my alarm as a "just in case" because I can ill afford to be late to work!

Sadly though, my ears have not gotten any better at sound detection - but in their defense, they have not gotten any worse. I can recognize people moving toward my work space as their heels grind into the rocks and dirt that lay just outside the entrance of our little BAS. I am still unable to recognize certain individuals by the way they sound when they tread upon the rocks...

Another sense that has been turned up during this deployment is my sense of loss. (Yes, even this old Lion can still feel sometimes.) I have come to find that although I am quite capable of surviving on my own and putting up a pretty good front that makes me seem rather cold or stand-offish, I really do miss the company and love of my family and friends back home. Granted, I have friends here and I do my best to keep my brain occupied and moving toward the goal of the moment, but there is nothing that can fill the void and emptiness that comes along with knowing that you are loved by so many and yet unable to touch or feel anyone or anything. This is my psyche at its most vulnerable - though I strut and preen like a lordly lion on my pathway in this world, it just seems so much better to have those special moments pass with someone special and not just yourself...

The sun is up at it's mid-day apex and the temperature is beginning it's long spiral downward. A mere 106 degrees in the shade and under the shadow of that painfully obvious "black flag" which has been flying from the masthead since 0930 this morning.

I can see, hear, feel, smell and taste the days away in Africa for about the next 90 or so days and then return to a life that I embrace as my own - shared with a wife and children - friends and family. Granted, I am not looking forward to getting back to "civilian" life with grid-lock traffic, corporate criminals, unexpected pitfalls, gas at an all time high and greenhouse emissions burning holes in our atmosphere and pocketbooks. But the optimist within me is quick to shed away the negative energy and embrace all those positive things that this life has to offer. Being here has honed one of the better senses which often goes unrecognized in the normal and dull day to day existence of city life - that is the sense of hope. And when you have been left with nothing but your thoughts, memories and moments to reflect upon, you cannot help but look to ward the horizon and to that blazing ray of hope!

Thankfully, hope is the sense which has been boosted and uplifted the most while I have been here. I have so much to look forward to, how could my hope NOT be elevated?...