Greetings loyal airmen.  I hope this week has been a good one for all of you.  The above picture of our back yard was taken by our granddaughter, Chelsea.   When Valerie and I moved here all those many years ago, the fenced in pool was as you see it.  But the yard was simply grass. Within a year of making this our home, someone offered us a jungle-gym set.  As our grand kids were still young enough to enjoy one of these, we gladly accepted the gift and my son-in-law, Chris, and I set it up solidly by mooring the poles in cement.  So time moves on, the grand kids get older, some move away and one day there's just no one left to play on the gym set.  Which is when Valerie had the wonderful idea of repainting it green, adding bird feeders and turning the base into a flower garden.  For the next couple of summers we slowly began to make the changes and the results were amazing.  Year after year we added permanent plants around the perimeter along the fence and we redo the annuals in the bed every Spring, then clean it up in the Fall.

One of the first things we learned is how much birds of every kind love the splash color the flowers bring.  Thus, with the beauty of the flowers, we also have dozens of blue jays, cardinals, finches, morning doves and many more flitting about our yard and the converted jungle-gym.   Several days ago, Chelsea called asking if she could come over and spend the night with us.  Summer is speeding along, and unlike her older sister who has a job, Chelsea found her days getting a bit long and tedious.  Of course we are always delighted to have any of  our grand kids visit and told her to come on over.   We watched the Red Sox game together that night, after dinner, then made plans to go see the new Simpson movie the next day at a matinee.

That morning, Valerie and I were sitting outside having our coffee when Chelsea finally joined us.  Valerie noticed a humming bird flitting around the flowers and told Chelsea to get her camera out of the kitchen.  Chelsea then proceeded to take a few pictures, including the one above.  After she and Val went back inside to get her breakfast, I sat there finishing my coffee and enjoying the view.  I started thinking about how beautiful those flowers are, and the birds that visit us daily.  For a moment, I was smart enough to appreciate the truly simple miracles that surround me daily.  I am a man blessed with so many riches.  Oh, not the kind you put in the bank, but the more substantial things; health, family, friends and a truly good life.  All of which was mirrored back to me by simply sitting there and enjoying those brightly colored petals.

What I was unaware of that time was that within a few hours, somewhere on a bridge in Minneapolis, MN, dozens of men and women would be facing disaster.   None of them could have possibly guessed when they awoke that morning that it would be the last day of their lives.  That bridge, as you all know, collapsed without warning and sent many plunging in their cars six stroies into the river below.  The images on the television these pass two days have been jarring.   All that concrete and steel buckled up like so much cardboard.  That so many actually survived is an even greater miracle.

All of which made me think of writer Thorton Wilder's book, The Bridge At San Luis Rey.   The story begins with a group of people on a bus traveling through the Mexican countryside on dark and rainy night.  The bus comes to an old wooden bridge and it collapses.  All on board are killed.  Then the novel proceeds to go back in time and tell us who all these people where and how their lives intersected in time and space up to the moment they stepped up onto that bus for the last journey of their lives.  It's a powerful image.  All of us will die one day but none of us has a clue when that time will come.  Sitting on the patio the other day I took a few precious minutes away from the hustle and bustle to simply look at the world around me and thank God for it.  Enjoy every second of life you have, here and now.  Those men and women in Minneapolis never knew when they started driving across that bridge that they would never reach the other side.  Something not only to think about, but to learn from.  Life is such a fleeting gift, please appreciate it fully …while you still can.

Ron, over and out.