Touching Lives Touching You

I was wondering as I drove the 2 hours back to Ft Bragg today. It was hot outside and I was leaving family behind. It was Father's Day. It was one of those moments where you are disappointed to leave and yet your mission is before you. But I am here touching lives at the home of the Airborne, the Rangers, the Special Forces and I'm touching you through this medium. We're connected. And we're beginning another mission touching the lives of our military members and their families. It is an awesome mission. And we're doing it together. We have a mutual mission as you think about the tasks of our military members and their families. Pray for them. Pray for me. I'll pray for you, too. Dr. D.

Taking Care of Home

Hope you are doing that? I spent four wonderful days at home before I left to a new assignment. This time it will be with the Army, Ft Bragg. These are tough military professionals. Yet they suffer just like everyone else and their families also. So, what can I do to help? Who will be crossing my path in the weeks ahead? What kind of struggles are they going through? Will I be able to help? What I am really doing here? Well, I did have a great time at home, working too much around the yard and loving it. Great dinner and such fun with grandkids and a visit with one of our sons. So, now it is off to other people's families. I'm ready. Hope youare taking care of home. You won't know how important that is until you can't be there. Dr. D.

Packin' Up Gettin' Ready to Go!

I start packing a couple of days before I leave. I need to be organized. Sometimes I pack and repack the same bag, just to fit everything in the easiest or best in my mind. When it gets right down to it when the time comes finally I have to leave whether I'm ready or not, packed or not. Then I just stuff the last things in. It doesn't matter anymore. Maybe this is a lot like life. As we go through life we pack our experiences in. Other things happen, other people come into our lives, sometimes even a great spiritual experience, and we have to unpack and repack. Each day, however, we simply must live it, no matter how things are packed. If we are dragging around the past, it is more difficult to live today. But if it is put in its place, we'll do just fine. The past needs to stay there most often. So, packed and ready or not, I just gotta go. Dr. D.

It is very hot

I like hot weather. I prefer it to cold winters with snow. I think snow looks nice in pictures. It was already 80 degrees when I left for work this morning at 0730 hours (7:30 am to civilians they say). But nothing is so hot as the intensity with which airman families must work. It is intense. It is a 24/7 job serving one's country. The wind blew and the trees waved in it. I could hear a dog barking and the birds were singing. It was a beautiful day. Well, okay, so my replacement arrived today and it may have clouded my perception, pun intended. When your replacement arrives it means you are only days from going home. Don't you love going home. It is as though the weight of the world rolls right off my back when I walk in that front door. I am learning again what home means. It is my hide away, my hospital, the place I go to be myself and re-energize. Home is where I get ready for the next assignment. That is home. Be glad to go there. See what there is there that really lets you be yourself, be loved, enjoy. That would make it worth it. Dr. D.

Monday Mornings

It was already hot at 7am today, 76 degrees. Rose to 97 by mid day. Really hot. Don't know how we really took it years ago without air conditioning. Drove the little rental car to the office, briefed my local liaison on the week ahead and headed out to our satillite office in the Air Force Tech School. Our ramping up of care to the thousands of young (mostly) airmen who are in their advanced training called Tech School. They train everything from military police to transportation specialists. Had a great conversation with a graduate of the military police school on his way to North Dakota. Another from California on his way to Delaware! Talk about coast to coast. In all it was a good day, one that I can look back on proud to have been here to serve our airmen. Having to brace myself as I gear up for an army assignment next. I laughed as I shared with the new, young security force private, that you know you are old when the police look soooo young. This was a day, one of many and one of many more to come. Dr. D.

Worship Around the World

I promised you this photo. Basic Training Airmen of our U.S. Air Force. Worshipping on Sunday morning. You see so many of them responding to a call for Christian committment. It was a sight to behold! Sent chills up and down my back! Singing like you never heard even from those who can't sing! It reminds me that faith in the Lord is the backbone of satisfying life. These airmen are making that choice. They will still have challenges, as we do, but they will have an inner spiritual strength that give courage and balance and wisdom. In fact, as I think about it, it is not just for airmen or soldiers, but for all of us. What are you built on? Now, isn't it better to depend on our Lord? Dr. D.

Where does the time go?

How come some days take forever and other days pass by in a moment? I experienced both recently. My Love came to visit for a long weekend. It was gone in a flash. The next week after she left seemed to take forever to pass. I don't get it sometime. Yesterday we had a splendid wedding day and this coming week we will celebrate 43 years. Seems impossible. Yesterday our children were born, today they have children of their own. My days serving our military men and women and their families seem to be both consequential weeks and fly by in a moment. Touching someone which may have an effect upon the rest of their marriages or military careers seems so important. But no matter our experience of it, we best make the best of the moments we have today, because it will be yesterday much too soon. Dr. D.