Dear Reader:

I met Walsh for lunch on Daniel Island yesterday and it was so wonderful to just talk about and share our feelings and thoughts about life at each of our stages in it!

He handed me a video to watch while he finished getting ready when I first arrived. If grandmothers plump up with pride like peacocks… then Boo looked like a fat peacock!

While camping in Vermont with his dad, granddad, uncles and cousins Rutledge turned eight. On his actual birthday- June 18- Rutledge asked his dad if would tape him because he wanted to share 8 things he was grateful for !

So by the firelight Walsh taped Rutledge thanking God for family, food, sports, school and his teacher, vacations to be together , his home, and God.

We talk about moments that linger a lifetime-this will definitely be one. And what a great idea-for us to stop whatever we are doing to make a gratitude list for each year of life! ( I think I better start now listing all mine-glad we got a big family to help me

fill in. ) The photo was taken from the video so it is slightly shaky but you see how happy Rutledge was with his birthday idea.

Archibald Rutledge, from yesterday’s blog post, said he learned what true religion was from the sharecroppers who helped his daddy run Hampton Plantation and whose next generation returned to help Rutledge begin restoring it in 1937.

Depression was not a word you ever heard among the sharecroppers living there-instead when tragedy hit or hard times came people like Morris who was among the oldest tenants would say ” I got a glory!” Morris knew that to find a glory and give it the strength that might be spent in despair was the only way out of suffering.

Gabe taught Archie all the tricks in hunting. As a boy he revered Gabe for his calmness in any situation-nothing seemed to ” get to him.”

When Gabe lost his house to a fire, Archie ran down to see him. He and his family had moved into a temporary lean-to nearby. When Gabe saw young Archie he grinned and said ” I saved one shirt but that one is raggedy.”

” Well, said young Archie, that’s enough to make you sure enough depressed! ”

” Oh I ain’t depressed! I ain’t got the real depression ’cause I still got hope. ”

From Gabe Archibald Rutledge would learn one of his greatest lessons in life. The only real loss in life is spiritual loss.

So until tomorrow… Take a minute today and think about what you would put in your own personal life creed … your personalized doctrine.

While on Daniel Island there was a field filled with flags called the Field of Honor. I felt an overwhelming love for my country consume me…with all its struggles to remain free.. a democracy always worth our constant vigil and loving support!

” Today is my favorite day”