A Day to Start Giving Thanks……
Thursday we will all be celebrating Thanksgiving Day. For me, every day, is Thanksgiving Day, because I have so much to be thankful for! I was in my driveway this morning when I heard a plane fly overhead. I looked up to see what kind plane it was, something I do all the time. It took me back in and instant, to my youth, and that’s a long ways back! From the time I was a little boy I’ve been obsessed with airplanes, and I am always looking for them, and listening for them! When I was little, my neighborhood friend, Joe Guthrie, and I used to take a cardboard box and draw instruments on it and stick clothespins in it as make believe switches. We would sit in the make believe cockpit of our make believe plane and fly all over the world!
Through out my young life, my twenties and thirties, forties too, I wanted to be a pilot. Raising a family, tight budgets and no time, it never happened. I wasn’t bitter, it is the way life works out some time, I was o.k. with it, just little sad. This morning when I looked up to see the plane I smiled and thought how gracious God is. In my fifties, I watched a movie with my kids, and it featured a father and daughter flying an ultra light airplane. A spark went off and the next thing I knew I was looking into ultra lights, then training and before I knew it, I was a “pilot”!!!! So I’m thankful, got that, I’m thankful!!!! I became a pilot, and not only that, I got to fly my little airplane in over 90 exciting locations across America, did a book and then learned to fly a different kind of ultra light and did another book, another bunch of incredible locations!!! I’m thankful, so thankful!!! Imagine that a dream had for almost fifty years, and God never gave up on it, even if I thought it was long past!
Then there is a 46 year incredible marriage, three great kids, (now adults), 6 wonderful grand children, a handful of dear, dear friends. A profession that provides endless excitement and fulfillment. Yes, I’m thankful, today and every day, and Thursday for sure!!!!
Blessings,
the pilgrim
This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 24th, 2015 at 6:31 pm
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
If anyone reading this hasn’t seen “America from 500 feet” is literally one of the best photography books ever published. I’ve rarely been so inspired as I have when looking at Bill’s work on this project. I am thankful for all I have learned from you Bill.
….and me from you Scott, my love goes stop you and yours this Thanksgiving!
I agree wholeheartedly with the above comment, and would add the 2nd book is just as fantastic! Thank you, Bill, for providing us who are still “that little boy”, dreaming of sailing above this beautiful land of ours…..through your efforts and your books, we can verify that what we dreamed is just as fantastic in real life! God’s creation never ceases to amaze us……and your books have taken us places we never dreamed of going. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!
Thanks Scott, I;m so glad you came along for the journey!
Psalm 100
Thanks!
Amen!
Thank you for everything you have shared, time spent in and out of the field. I’m thankful to know you and call you a friend.
You to Tom, it is always a joy to be with you!
Have a great Thanksgiving Bill!
Yes, same to you you Joshua!
God bless you my friend! Toni and I wish you, Sherelene and your family a wonderful Thanksgiving. God has indeed blessed us beyond measure! I hope we can meet up again this year, (Imaging in Atlanta??) and find another great burger joint!!!
Love ya Bill.
Brad
You to Brad, my very best to the both of you!!!!