Dear Friends,
I am sharing thoughts from my father’s celebration service today. My dad, Richard Adkins, was a Navy veteran who worked as a crew member on an aircraft carrier. He loved serving his country in the Navy; an avid airplane enthusiast, he also loved flying. The celebration service was on Tuesday, July 1, at First Baptist Church in Davis, CA. (It’s hard to believe just ten weeks ago, my father and mother walked me halfway down the aisle to hand me to my two children, who escorted me the rest of the way to my adoring groom.) We are thankful we do not grieve like those who have no hope (I Thessalonians 4:13). After I read Richard’s eulogy:,The Davis Enterprise 6/29/14, his grandson Josh read my dad’s favorite poem: “High Flight” by John Gillespie Magee, Jr. I know you’ll enjoy it:
“High Flight” by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And dance the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds-and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of-wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace.
Where never lark, or even eagle flew.
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
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