Wednesday thoughts

I left the house at the crack of dawn to see the old WWII destroyer Laffey be towed out of the maritime museum en route to a nearby shipyard for repairs. She is full of holes from corrosion and her hull has been worn thin.

She was called the Ship That Would Not Die; yet, the sea has done to her what the kamikaze planes could not. So with no small amount of funding, the ship is going to be repaired so that she may return to the museum.

There were many veterans standing with me watching as she was pushed and towed into the Harbor channel. Some of these were men who had served on the ship. I can only imagine their excitement and anticipation at the thought of her being returned to a semblance of the ship that they served on. It made me feel good that she was getting another chance.

I could hear the tugs talking to each other on the VHF. They were being as delicate as they could with the old girl. The push boat was only there as a precaution because too much pushing could have punctured through the hull. The speed upriver to the yard was around 6 knots, enough speed to move with the tide but not enough to throw up a wake. I felt relieved when I heard that she had made it to her berth at the yard.

Everything seems like a wonder to me today. I'm feeling physically, emotionally and spiritually fit. My colleague got a sponsor at the meeting last night. He said that he prayed on his knees for the first time since childhood. My wife is going to her home group meeting tonight, and I'm going to go rowing. The God of my understanding is active and evident in my life. He filled up many of my holes with spiritual Bondo and gave me some extra plating so that I could stay afloat. I have a lot of gratitude for that.