This month I attended my daughter’s graduation ceremony at Vanderbilt/Peabody, visited my brother and sister in law in Tennessee and the family homestead in Ky. It was bittersweet to go home and be reminded of loss of family and the chances time had wrought. We all faces changes, changes at work, at home and in things that meant a lot to us in our past.

As we drove down the blacktop road that had been the gravel entrance to our family farm, I missed the trees that had once formed a green archway in the summer and a golden tunnel in the fall. I was not prepared to think that those trees would also have aged and withered.

One of the most difficult things was to see the empty spot once occupied by the little country church where I was baptized at age seven. Once regal (to me) family homes were now in decay or missing entirely. Little block buildings that once housed tiny country stores now stood empty or were used as storage. The post office had been moved and the bank was no longer operational. It’s charter now belongs to a bank in Georgia.

The neighboring town where I had shopped by going from store to store in the courthouse square was missing stores like a chopped up Monopoly board. It was like seeing all the railroads or all of the “Yellows” missing as I played the game. One store had recently collapsed leaving still, as of then, a pile of bricks. A modern jail had been (criminally) attached to the historic courthouse. Upon seeing this, I said “NO” aloud to no one in particular, “How could they do that?”

This little reminiscing is not to be a downer and bring the readers to tears, but to remind us each one that change is inevitable and we should take time now to record the people, places, times and events that we love. Take time to record them in your heart and memory if not in your camera lens. Some of my best “scrapbook” pages are in my heart.

Now as we enter June 2007, I would like to share with you some of the memories of my path back home.

One of our lovely ladies on the message board is getting together cards for our military. I know this is also happening all over our country as a way to express our heartfelt gratitude and appreciation for these brave men and woman. I wanted to give you a few ideas from my tribute to our military heroes, Military Moments to use on these cards.