Wadi Stones

I have two stones that I found on separate occasions in a wadi in Iraq in 2004. That was the year that killing and mayhem in Iraq markedly increased with roadside IEDs and VBIEDs. It was a horrible but unremarkable escalation of violence against occupiers, tribes and sects. On one, a large three-sided stone, I wrote, "Simplify" On the other, smaller stone, more akin to a stone you'd use to skip across a stream or lake surface, I wrote on one side, "Love Life." On the other side I wrote, "Dream." They have been on my toilet tank cover since I returned. They are the first objects I see every morning when i wake and the last things I see every night before bed. Ten years later, those words from a younger and wiser war-fighter me, written on wadi rocks with a black Sharpie, continue to inform my life. And for what it's worth, those wadie stones inform the lives of my employees; they just don't know it.