~upon taking leaps of faith~

Hello everyone and greetings from the Sunflower State~Kansas. We're fixing to turn another year older here in just about 13 more days.  Looking pretty dang good at age 152 and to my dear friends, Craig and Dennis...that's KANSAS I am talking about, not me.  It's been a busy Wednesday here, at least in this neighbourhood.  People in these parts, heck in a lot of parts of the U.S., have been busy doing daily battle against the flu and every other virus and its brother lately.  Our little kids at school have been "biting the dust", "dropping like flies" and any other descriptive adage that you can think of lately.  Clorox is our "new best friend" and the container of Germ-X is dipping into the almost "Empty" stage.  So between washing our hands on an even more regular basis and squirting on the hand sanitizer in between, we're all doing what we can to stay healthy.  Just like winter, this awful sickness can't last forever but it surely does seem like it will.  Praying for all of the people who are struggling to get well again and STAY well at the same time.

Last night I got an interesting email from an old friend of mine from high school who had noticed some of my photos on Facebook showing me power parachuting a few years back.  It's a "sport" that I love and I'm only sorry that I haven't been able to do it more often.  It's fun!  For those of you who don't know what it is, the best way to describe it is to look at the photo below.  This is me going up for my very first time, now almost 9 years ago.

At Sky-View Power Parachuting-south west of Hutchinson in August of 2004.  What you cannot see is the huge parachute that is connected behind.  Morris Yoder is the pilot shown to the left.

I'll never forget that first time up in the air.  It was the kind of experience that takes just a little bit of courage to have the gumption to attempt.  You gotta have a lot of faith in the pilot and the machine.  Once you are helmeted up and buckled in, there's no turning back.  And believe me, once you gain enough altitude to fly there 'aint no jumping out people!  It was one of the very first times in my life that I tried to do something that seemed so daring (at least to me) and I'm sure glad that my elderly mom didn't know I was doing it before I had already landed on the ground.  She would not have approved, believe me!  If you can "ground" an adult child, it would have happened to me that night.  No kidding!

It seems as though we are called upon a lot of times in this life to practice "leaps of faith" in everything that we do.  The simple act of getting out of bed in the morning and facing the unknowns of the day can, at times,  require a huge amount of determination and courage. Yet people do it, day in and day out and they don't even know what lies ahead of them. And my friends who are reading this, you are one of those strong and courageous people yourselves.

Many of the things already finished on my bucket list have required huge leaps of faith in order that they would be accomplished.  Finally being "ok" with returning to the water to learn how to swim and even allowing myself to go in water over my head, driving a 4,000 mile round trip to my beloved Maine from my former home in Valley Center, Kansas and at the top of the list of things that took a bit of guts, pushing down on the pedal of my bike for the first time after I got hurt while riding~among many others.
Several things yet remain on my "bucket list" for me to do and at least a couple of them will require their fair share of "nerves of steel".  It's not going to be easy to get on that plane for the first time in forever and head to NYC to see my niece Jessica in the spring.  But if millions of other people use the airways without issue, then surely Peggy Miller can be able to fly and survive in a huge city without too much trouble.  Still working on that one friends but hey I've still got 7 or 8 weeks to keep practicing.

Wow, it got kinda late as I was typing this.  Nigh unto bedtime for some of  us and for you young kids who make it a habit to dare to stay up until 11:30, well I wish you well.  Have a great night's sleep all and when you wake up in the morning, refreshed and ready to go, please remember all of the good people who will walk alongside you, even in the scariest of moments.  I still maintain that we are all in this world together, to help each other along the way.  Thanks for helping me....I will always be beholden to you friends.  Good Night!  (and by the way, isn't it a nice feeling to have someone to say good night to?)

I should be fine taking a giant "leap of faith" in New York City...just as long as this young lady helps her old Aunt Peggy figure out where in the heck she is all the time.  Can't wait Jessica!  See you in March.

Last but not least:  The words of James Taylor, from the song "Copperline"....
"Took a fall from a windy height.  I only knew how to hold on tight and pray for love enough to last all night, down on the Copperline."