Life is good

Quilt-square barn in Mountain City, Tenn.

You’d think that, as a photographer, I’d have my camera at the ready always.

Problem is, I’m a daddy before a photographer, which means my priority is usually the logistics of transporting my family here and yonder on Sunday mornings.  So again, this morning, I found myself in at a beautiful location — Providence United Methodist Church in Pelham, Tenn. — without my camera.  I had my iPhone, but of course, never thought to shoot pictures with it.  (That’s why this post is accompanied by an unrelated photo of a barn in Mountain City, Tenn., just because I like it.)  The church is situated along a winding country road in rural Grundy County, and is surrounded by rolling farmland.  The weather was perfect, autumn leaves swirled around us, sheep grazed in a field across the road, and the kids managed not to damage each other too much during the hour-long drive.

We attended the pretty little Providence church because my co-worker, Allison Morgan, had invited me to speak to her congregation about Louis Zamperini, the famous WWII POW of which I’ve written in the Cooperator and blogged in the past.  (Click here for that blog.)

Today’s was a wonderful experience, and the people at Providence were welcoming and appreciative.  It was truly a blessing for me to be able to speak about Zamperini in such an inspiring setting.  It helped me to focus on my own blessings, as well.  To be able to live in such a lovely part of the world, to have the freedom to attend church and worship Christ, to look out into the congregation and see my own beautiful family…  Life is good.

Now I must get back to work on a Cooperator story about the effect of the Civil War on an individual farmer in Columbia, Tenn.  I’ll post that here in the near future.

Happy Veteran’s Day.  Enjoy your life, hug a veteran, and count your blessings.  And, by the way, here’s Livingston Taylor doing one of my favorite tunes, “Life is good.”