“I don’t want to go there.” We’ve all said those exact words. A painful memory we don’t want to dredge up. A journey we’re dreading. A place or Continue Reading
When Life Crosses the Shadow of Death
This article first appeared in The Havok Journal on August 19, 2018. ___________ Ten sailors missing... darkness approached in Asia as helicopters Continue Reading
July 4th Fireworks and Wounded Warriors
by DiAnna Steele What I'd really like people to know is that fireworks are particularly disturbing to our veterans. I've worked with wives of wounded Continue Reading
Memorial Day—Remembering the Fallen
Tandem-jumping into Normandy with Army Rangers who served with my son, Sgt. First Class Kristoffer Domeij, to honor the fallen at the 2019, 75th D-Day Continue Reading
Love and Loss: Dreading Memorial Day
My son's body came home on Memorial Day in 2007, I hate Memorial Day, and I have to admit, it drives me nuts when people see it as the start of summer Continue Reading
An Afghan-Muslim Woman Who Touched a Gold Star Mom’s Soul
An ethnic grocery store in Denver, CO with its name printed over its façade in three different languages compels me to stop and shop each time I drive Continue Reading
Killjoys and Blessings Only Make Me Stronger
As a free-spirited, artsy-fartsy civilian who has no clue how to salute, I’m not always in tune with or understand the military culture or protocol. Continue Reading
The Poetry of Military Vernacular: Randy Brown’s “Welcome to FOB Haiku”
Book Review: Jonathan Baxter, author of "The Ghosts of Babylon" In Welcome to FOB Haiku: War Poems From Inside the Wire, author Randy Brown, “Charlie Continue Reading
Do Educated Moms Raise Terrorists?
On Mother's Day, I read about the bombing of the girl's school for the Hazaras in Kabul and I wept. The death toll has risen to 85. A part of my heart Continue Reading
The Reality of Mother’s Day: A Time to Weep and Mourn, Laugh and Dance
My sweetest and most painful Mother’s Day was our family’s first Mother’s Day as a single-parent family. As a newly single mom, Mother’s Day was Continue Reading
Dreading Mother’s Day: Finding Solace in Brotherhood and Sisterhood
This first appeared in The Havok Journal on May 8, 2016. Mother’s Day... at the first mention in the week leading up to Mother’s Day my conscious Continue Reading
From Ritual to Reality: Because He Lives
This first appeared in The Havok Journal on March 27, 2016 My annual nostalgia of Easter now blossoms in reverse. My firstborn was killed in Continue Reading
