Today was supposed to be my day off.  I was really looking forward to it, since it would have been my first day off work since December 27, 2008, back at Fort Dix, NJ. 

I was supposed to report for a ride in an up-armored vehicle for a short ride to a location about 3-4 miles east of the International Zone.  I was planning to spend some time visiting a former Public Affairs colleague I have known for more than 15 years.   He works as a Public Affairs advisor for the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior, and he had planned to show me some of the work American soldiers do training Iraqi police.

That never happened because when I called for some last minute information last night, I was given the wrong report time by someone at the unit that was going to be giving me that ride.  When I got to the designated location this morning, I was told that the time my ride had left 90 minutes early.  I called my friend and left a message, packed up my bag and headed back to work. 

When I got there, I found the office in need of some support.  We had a very important press conference and the extra set of hands came in handy.  Although I was upset when I heard I would not be able to visit my friend, I was happy to see that I could make good use of my time.  I guess I am optimist.

At the end of the press conference, I think I told the commander “everything happens for a reason.”  I am not 100% sure what people mean when they say that.  I am not a real religious person, so I am not saying that some supreme being planned for me to miss that ride this morning so I could help the unit through a rough spot back here at the CPIC.   I know some people might say that, but it’s just not me.

What I mean when I use that phrase is that we can never really know what lies ahead.  When I tell it to a soldier who has sustained a set back, what I want him or her to consider is that something better might be just around the corner. 

We can make the grandest plans, but there are just so many variables in life that we just have to roll with the punches and not fret when we miss a ride occasionally in an up-armored vehicle.  Even when I am really upset, if I tell myself this I feel like I open my mind up to the possibility that something good may come from disappointment.

When I sat down to write this blog, I planned to finish it with that final paragraph, but when the Internet opened up, I was caught by a photo and story.  A picture of two Arab men carrying  a coffin splashed across my screen with an accompanying story titled “Suicide Attack Kills 28 in Baghdad” , written by a New York Times reporter here in Baghdad.  As I read the story, each word drew me in…and made me think more about the reasons for things.  It seems this particular attack happened early this morning, maybe the same time I might have been on my way to visit my friend.  The story also said that the attack happened near an Iraqi policy academy.

I’m not sure exactly when during the “early morning hours” the bomb went off in the middle of a crowd of oil workers protesting for better pay, or if the adjacent police academy was the same one I was planning to visit.  I saw no reports about U.S. soldiers being killed or injured in the attack. 

As I write this expanded blog entry, I am more certain that everything does happen for a reason.  Perhaps that reason is to remind me that despite all the work that has been done here in Baghdad and the sacrifices made by many Americans and others, the struggle is not over and peace has not arrived fully.  There are still risks here for all of us, and today’s turn of events raised my awareness that those risks might be only 3-4 miles away (or even closer possibly, if you happened to be on an up-armored vehicle early this morning.)

If you want to read the story about this morning’s suicide attack, check out this website: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/09/world/middleeast/09iraq.html?hp