An Open Letter to the Armed Forces in Honor of Armed Forces Day (May 17, 2008)

May 17th, 2008

Good morning,

It's a beautiful Saturday morning here, in fact it is 8:47, and I've been up a couple of hours puttering around. First thing I do in the morning is take a long hot shower; it just gets my day going right. Then on to breakfast, today it was toast from the special homemade bread my mama made me. I checked my email, nothing new there. Off to read some online news. Then I went out to the yard to inspect my flowers. Still here. Still gorgeous. I take a deep breath and yep still smelling like a flowerly perfume factory thanks to the roses, irises and peonies. It rained yesterday, so everything looks so clean and fresh. I took a few photos.

I decided to do more than look and/or take photos today. I pulled up some flowers that were in the pathway instead of being inside one of many flower beds. I talk to these rebel flowers and tell them they are welcome in my yard, but they have to grow inside a flower bed not where I walk. They were beautiful, but they were making my yard look like a flower jungle because you couldn't see definite paths between different flower beds. I don't like pulling up plants and throwing them out, I always feel like a flower murderer when I do that, but I prepared myself during the week; by putting some steel in my spine and telling myself, it is necessary. I cut some of the blooms off of some of the plants I pulled up and brought them in the house. Now, I don't feel so much like a flower murderer.

I have red poppies and blue bachelor buttons in a beautiful glass vase. I'm thinking once I write you I will go out and get white daisies to put in the vase to make it a patriotic flower arrangement. I want to do it in honor of today: Armed Forces Day. In particular, I want to do it in honor of you. My family and I want to personally thank you for your service and to let you know how much we appreciate the sacrifices you have made to help keep us safe. Thanks to you and others like yourself in the Armed Forces, that I'm able to have such a wonderful Saturday morning. Please let your team know that we appreciate them and we also honor them not only today, but everyday as we go through our normal activities.

Many Blessings from the Walker family