Resting in the shade of the tree(s)

As all three of my faithful blog followers know that I am a big Civil War fan.  There are a handful of things to love about that time period, a few things to fear, many things to be respected.  I love the way men wrote and talked back then, they were much more eloquent than we are today.  One of my favorite quotes was by Stonewall Jackson,  a quote that is attributed to the last thing he said before he died... "Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees."  I love that quote, especially in the context of one of the greatest soldiers coming to the end of his young life.  Think about that quote as we continue on with my blog today.  

I am currently in the state Oklahoma.  I have never been here, nor do I know much about the area.  This job has allowed me to travel all over the US.  I have met some amazing brothers and seen some amazing places.  On Friday, I had a great visit with the SAE men at Oklahoma State.  I was supposed to have dinner with them at Leadership School but unfortunately I had to cancel.  So, I owed them.  I also have a good friend (Khris Kendall) who has been trying to get me to come visit his chapter at OKKA, The University of Oklahoma.  If you didn't know, "there is only one Oklahoma!"  Today (Sunday) I will be going to OU to visit with their chapter during chapter meeting. Yesterday, we had some downtime before he and I went to the OU/ND game. I must say, it was very nice of the people of Norman to continually shout my name at the stadium.  Its pretty moving to have the largest crowd ever for a OU home game constantly shout "BOOMER!"  One of the places I did want to see while I was here was the OKC bombing site.  It is one of those events that will always stick in your mind, even if it has been somewhat overshadowed by 9-11.    

Yesterday morning was a beautiful, chilly, fall Saturday morning.  The downtown of OKC has been really transformed lately and it is a new, shiny, looking downtown. A lot of this is probably due to the OKC Thunder NBA team.  The OKC Memorial is right in the middle of downtown.

The memorial is literally on top of 5th street, this section of 5th street has now been closed.  At one end of the memorial is a big wall with a cut out in it to walk through.  On the top of the wall reads the time 9:01.  You then have this long reflective pool above running east to west, and on the other end is a similar wall with a similar entrance cut out as well.  On top of that wall  reads the time 9:03.  The truck bomb went off at 9:02.  Behind the trees in the picture above Im looking (northeast) are chairs.  Each chair represents one of the 168 people who were killed in the bombing.  There are 19 chairs smaller than the others.   These chairs represent the 19 children who were killed, all 6 or under.  All of my children are 6 an under.  

Who can forget this iconic picture from the OKC bombing?

This is what hurt me the most.  To think of all the kids, the same age as mine, who were at the daycare on the second floor of the building.   As if this entire event wasn't tragic enough, this just breaks my heart.  It could have been my Reagan, my Carolina, my Baylor Grace, or my Hadley.  

My Hadley(after dominating a nap)! 

It is all very sad to me.  I was a sophomore in high school when it happened.  It didnt really effect me like it did yesterday.  Not until I saw (again) the picture of above of the firefighter, not until I realized that 16 sets of parents lost their babies due to this.  As I was doing some research before I went over there, I couldn't help but cry. It is strange, when I was a sophomore in HS, none of these thoughts crossed my mine.  However, I couldn't shake them yesterday.   It is a good thing that I got it out of my system before I went, because I would have hated to have lost it there.  Again, I have no real connection to this bombing.  

You then walk to the north end of the park which is elevated above the chairs/reflecting pool.  On this end you have an incredible view of the site.  A view, that almost 20 years later, is so extremely peaceful.  Standing there you can almost imagine the chaos that day. The sadness.  The death.  When looking at the site, behind you stands a tree.  This tree is called "The Survivor Tree."  The tree is about the only thing that remains from the site that day.  Windows blocks away were shattered, people blocks away were injured, churches destroyed, but this tree survived.  

It was at this point of visit that I turned around and looked at what was at one time a scene of death and terror. Today, you see the remains of the building in the distance.  As your view is focused closer to you, you see some newer trees, then you see the memorials to those that are no longer with us, beautiful landscape, and then you have the reflecting pool.  I couldn't help but think of that great Stonewall quote.  On this site of terrorism, you literally cross over the river (reflecting pool) and rest in the shade of the tree(s) ( The Survivor Tree).  As Stonewall's life of war and strife was coming to an end, Stonewall knew he would soon be with his Savior.  That was the same journey those victims took that day.  We will never forget.