Imagine being fresh out of high school again. You have survived going to school for the past 12 years, your parents are proud of you and you have just joined the military as a way to earn money for college and learn some valuable skills along the way. You make it through basic and you are on to learning more and making the next rank.
Now imagine you have just been given orders that you will be going overseas to protect not only your countries freedoms, but also the world from groups of people who hate so much they will stop at nothing to try and kill you. You tell your parents and your mother cries, but you reassure her that everything will be okay and that you have all the skills and equipment you need to be safe. Then you arrive to that far away place and you find out there is a learning curve and it scares the hell out of you, but you are sworn to serve and protect and that is exactly what you plan to do. Your platoon is full of your new brothers and sisters and you are there to protect them and they you.
Now imagine the day comes when the unspeakable, the unthinkable, the immoral happens and a road side bomb goes off. Screams and the smell of burning flesh fill the air. Your body feels as though it is on fire and you look down to see why and your legs are missing. You look around for help from your brothers and sisters only to see that shrapnel has taken one of your brothers arms, another’s leg is half missing and several of them have chunks of it that have penetrated their skulls. You turn the other direction only to see your best friend laying there, not breathing, and motionless. The feeling of helplessness if overwhelming, but those brothers and sisters of yours that are safe, that promised to protect you at all costs, start to do just that. You fade to unconsciousness and things go quiet.
Imagine now waking up in a hospital many days later not sure where you are or who you are for that matter. You have just been told the news you have lost your legs and you may never walk again and the pain of that news is NOTHING compared to the pain of finding out you have lost many of your brothers and sisters is this horrible and tragic event. You wonder to yourself how you will ever be able to heal from all of this…
Now imagine a couple of years have gone by. Your only desire is to be “normal” again, but you can’t get those images from your head and your shredded body is a constant reminder of what happened. You are so overwhelmed with nightmares, anxiety, and the guilt of surviving that it is hard to get up in the morning. The doctors have you on so many pills you could be your own pharmacy, but none of them seem to do anything for you. Every single day is such a huge struggle and you wonder if it was worth surviving at all. You contemplate suicide over and over again and you think your wife, kids, and parents would be better off without you.
Now imagine that a love one has just introduced you to this organization that is supposed to help vets. You are skeptical as they claim to heal all these pains you have through a past time you know nothing about. You hurt so bad inside and out you figure “why not” and give it a try. Your instructor is caring, patient, understanding, nonjudgmental, and helps you through your struggles. You find yourself leaving and wanting more. Then the day comes you get to put those skills to use. You go to this beautiful place with a trout stream running through it and there is a sense of peacefulness you have not felt in a very long time. Your guide helps you to the water and for the first time since that horrible day you feel whole again. Your thoughts change from pain to peace as the water rushes around you and the trout rises to your fly. Excitement fills your body as the trout jumps and tries to get away from you. Your guide coaches you and as a team you get that fish into the net! A smile, a real smile is stretched out bigger on your face than any other time in your life and you start to heal.
I can’t imagine being part of a better organization that Project Healing Waters. It is quite literally saving the lives of the men and women who served our country and gave EVERYTHING to protect our freedoms. I thank God that the Founder, Ed Nicholson, saw just how healing fly fishing can be for these vets and created a way for them to not only forget, but to heal as well. It is absolutely humbling to see how much others have gone through and how a simple thing like fly fishing can heal those wounds. I am not only proud, but honored to be even a small part of this great organization. The smiles you receive in return are priceless.
