52 Blessings—Oh Say Can You See

My niece, Maddie, saluting the flag

For all intents and purposes it looks like I sunk. However, looks can be deceiving. I just kept going with the flow all week. Yesterday Calvin, Abe, Grace, Ande and I along with several church friends did a six + hour service project hoeing weeds in a cantaloupe patch, then rocked and visited on the patio with a friend that stopped by, then got an hour phone call from an old friend in Idaho, then went to a bbq and a ballgame. Friday I spent the day in Tri-Cities at an in-service training meeting and then went to Penny’s, Macy’s, Sears, Christopher Banks and Kohl’s in a fruitless search of a peony-pink something to wear to Abe and Grace’s reception. Though I couldn't find anything, I did come home to a wonderful Filipino supper made by them. Thursday was our last day of school and Wednesday was our day before the last day of school and now here it is Sunday and, in the words of Ann with an “e”, I have a fresh new week with no mistakes in it . . . yet.

Happy Flag Day to you. I had several ideas for 52 blessings today, but when I sat down to post decided on the American flag. A few weeks ago Grace and I saw the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write The Star Spangled Banner. Our flag has a way of doing that—inspiring people—as it waves a symbol of freedom. I know she inspires me. I thought today of that 1934 graduate of West Point that I wrote about a few weeks ago:

“He quietly sat in his wheelchair watching the cadets and drum and bugle corps march past him. However, when the color guard bearing the American flag drew near, he struggled and struggled to gain his footing and stand. He barely got his knees under him before the flag passed in front of him and he saluted it proudly before softly falling back into his wheelchair with a little humph. A hundred other “old grads” were in attendance at the parade, too, some of them walking with two canes, and each proudly saluting the flag that he protected and singing aloud The Star Spangled Banner."

I have since learned that 1934 graduate was 99 years old. The flag obviously inspired him and his cane-bearing buddies, too.

Happy Flag Day. Long may she wave o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.