Karaoke, A Soldier Cries and a Marriage Proposal

Yeah. Odd title. I know.

Last night, after all was said and done with the kids, I was sitting on the couch and watching TV and I've had such the month with just emotional everything, I needed to purge. I knew it was Karaoke night at Spurs, and normally once I'm already settled in on the couch, I don't want to go anywhere. I just felt a pull to get out and go sing.

I should explain that I purge by singing. It was around 10pm, and I knew I had a busy day today with it being the last day of the month, so I really wanted to get rid of all my emotional baggage and trudge forward to close all my business with a free and rejuvenated soul.

I called our neighbor and asked her daughter if she would mind sitting on the couch for just a couple hours while I ran up to Karaoke night at Spurs. It was a good call.

So I got to the bar, put in my songs, sipped on a couple beers and got up to sing. Before long, I was taking requests. There were a couple of guys at the bar, and I started talking to one of them after I got back off stage.

While we were talking, he explained to me that he had been special ops in the military, and now he was back at home in the States, working as a truck driver. He had the most amazing deep green eyes. He's originally from Alabama and has one daughter who will soon be eight. We had lots to talk about, as I told him about my kids and life here in between karaoke songs.

As the night rolled on, and we kept talking about our pasts, we got into a quick conversation about religion. We were now sitting at a small table away from the majority of the people who were still left in the bar. He said he was a Christian, and he prayed every day that he would be forgiven for some of the things he had to do when he was in the army. When he said this, his eyes quickly filled up with tears, and I could see his eyes cloud over, and knew he was re-living some of those moments in his head.

I immediately did the first thing that I know how to do... which is reach out and hugged him. I just leaned over and gave him the biggest "Mom" hug I had. I could feel his pain and his tears continued for a moment.

After one big deep breath, he stopped, quickly pulling himself together and he said, "You know, I had to do some terrible things. I've taken men's heads off, I've shot people...and it hurts me to know that I did those things, but when I stop and think about why I was doing that... On top of everything else, them shooting at me, and being in the war, those men were raping innocent women and children. And when I start beating myself up, I just think about that, and then I think about my daughter... and I know they really deserved exactly what they got."

I gave him a hug and reassured him that he had protected everything he held most dear in life, and protecting me and everyone else at the bar at the same time by volunteering to put his own life in danger.

He kind of looked up at me and then said, "You are amazing, you know that? Seriously, marry me."

I laughed and said, "You don't even know me".

I ended up diffusing the marriage proposal, but he asked about ten or fifteen times. I kept saying, "Relax... you don't even know me".

In the end, he kept me out later than I had planned to stay out, but the conversation was really great. We exchanged numbers to stay in touch.

When I reflect on the night, I think about how God works in mysterious ways. I met a nice person, who apparently needed some sort of therapy. While I'm not a professional, sometimes you just have to be there for other people. Their every day angel.

In an effort to get rid of some of my stress level, I ended up helping someone else get rid of some guilt. The best part? We both left refreshed and rejuvenated.

Wonderful.