Gone Fishin!

My home was filled with music and people growing up. Mom loved music and can play an assortment of instruments but her favorites are the lap dulcimer and the hammered dulcimer. I'm not certain of when she took up these pieces, but her talent and ear for music made the learning curve much shorter than most. Mom also loves people and there was always someone over at our house playing music and enjoying fellowship. Mom was always having dulcimer parties and with some of her friends played weddings, church events and parties for folks. My favorite was down at my aunt Becky's house just a 1/4 mile from our home. Becky would take the whole month of May to celebrate her birthday and it would culminate with a big party called "The Strawberry Jam". I'm sure there were strawberries there but I was never real sure the origin of the name. Everyone would gather in my aunt's carport, musicians would arrive with instrument cases and chairs. There was lots of conve...

I was 28 years old and I was blind. I had been this way since birth. I didn't know I was blind. But I knew something was wrong. Blindness leads to fumbling in the dark and bumping into things. You don't know when you are in danger, close to a cliff or near a something that can hurt you. You do a lot of wandering when you are blind. In my blindness I was unable to help my own state, incapable of changing anything. I tried, believe me I tried. Over and over again I set out to see, but blind people cannot see. Blindness is simply the inability to perceive light. Light is everywhere, but if you cannot perceive it, you can't see the world or yourself for what it really is. Then it happened. I'm not sure why it happened. I'm not sure why in respect to the timing that my healing took place. All I do know is that its much like the song, I was blind and then I saw and now I continue to see. It wasn't because I was special or talented. It wasn't ...

I looked down the hallway at Walter Reed Hospital and saw a Veteran in his late 30s being pushed in a wheel chair. At first, it was just a normal sight at Walter Reed to see someone missing legs, but then I noticed a familiar crooked grin and a familiar hat atop his head. The hat read, Purple Heart Homes and the smile meant that it was my friend Dale Beatty. He didn't recognize me in my Army uniform and clean shaven. I looked down at him as we both waited for an elevator and I said sarcastically, "Hey son, what do you know about Purple Heart Homes?" He looked up at me and said, "I'm the co-founder and we do critical home repair for disabled Veterans!" The excitement in his voice was contagious. I smiled back and said, "I know you Dale" Then the reunion began as we rode up in the elevator and for the next 2 hours we continued in conversation, Dale, his wife Belinda and me....just reconnecting. As I was leaving that day, Dale gave me a coin ...