Soap Box

*NOTE* Here's another rewind while Charlie finishes up his vacation, This one is from 2012. - TeamCDB

I sometimes find myself so caught up in my busy life, where I have to go, what I have to do, the commitments I have to keep and all the other things that go to make up the pressure cooker of demand and competition that goes with the profession I have chosen and love so much, that I forget to notice the blooms on the magnolia trees in the backyard.

Or I'll watch the news and be so frustrated by the sloth and downright insanity of the federal government that I forget how beautiful the sunset can be from the top of my hill crawling across the rolling countryside painting the horizon it's own special shade of red.

I need to remember to sit on the upstairs porch with Hazel and listen to the night critters praising the God that created them when a full moon lights up our valley and the bullfrogs in the big pond at the bottom of the hill add counterpoint to the song of a lovesick whippoorwill that's drifting in from somewhere back in the woods.

Wars and rumors of wars, the threat of terrorism, the danger of criminal violence and a thousand other things conspire to take away our peace of mind and I must remind myself that there is not a power or combination of powers anywhere on earth that can separate me from the love and protection of Almighty God.

When I look around at injustice and see the symbols of my beliefs being torn down because some court considers itself wiser than the timeless Holy Scriptures, I have to remember that man's own brilliance will be his undoing and that there is a higher court where there is no appeal and the decisions are eternal and that ultimately justice, in its true meaning, will be enforced.

I need to spend more time on a four-wheeler or casting a fishing line, or pulling for my favorite NASCAR driver or having a cup of coffee on the back porch when the morning sun is peeping through the trees on the hillside on the east side of the house.

I need to get on a gentle horse and ride the rolling hills and wooded pasture land and watch this year's calves run and jump.

I need to spend more time with my son talking about the upcoming football season we're both looking so forward to and love so much.

I need to leave my footprints in the late October frost in the big grassy field on the back of the property.

I want to snowmobile in the pristine Colorado high country where the aspen trees are as big around as a barrel and sit beside a fire all snug and warm and watch the awesome spectacle of a Rocky Mountain snowstorm.

I want to be silly with little children, watch an old John Wayne movie, eat a hand-dipped cone of chocolate ice cream at a drugstore that still has a soda fountain, I want to drive across the country on two-lane roads and stop at all the little towns along the way. I want to have lunch in meat and three in some tiny Georgia town and talk to some real Americans.

Simple things? Yes. Maybe even boring to a lot of people, but when I need to find the baseline in my life when I need to escape the incessant anxiety of modern life on Planet Earth, I need to remember and take pleasure in the real things, the true things, the important things, the simple things.

What do you think?

Pray for our troops, and for our country.

God Bless America

— Charlie Daniels

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