Sight seeing was one of the favorite pastimes I enjoyed with my children in their younger days. During the hot summer holidays, the days usually started early with vacation bible school during early summer and then swimming lessons, tennis lessons and later tournaments and then, the left over time, was spent going sightseeing. We would pile in the car and take off, not having any particular destination in mind, but the county parks with playgrounds, the area lakes, or long drives through open land as far as the eye could see to nowhere, until we got tired and turned around to go home. We packed snacks and lunch and good music for the tape player or car radio, and games, and books, for the trip. Upon arriving home later, all would settle down and rest after a good day, put to good use. There was never a dull moment in those days.
One day, after a visit to the pediatrician for the two year old baby, we decided to go sight seeing in the Venetian gardens, a beautiful park by the Harris chain of Lakes in Leesburg. The garden is right behind the building where the doctor had his office at the time. The appointment was brief and we drove the car from the parking lot to the parking area by the park. We took drinks and left everything else in the car since we were just going to look around the park and then come back and go to the YMCA for swimming. That morning was not hot yet as a typical summer morning would be. It was very nice, comfortable and a little breezy when we took off on the grassy path along the banks of a small body of water which looked man-made. We walked, taking in the sights, the flowers, the birds , ducks gliding on the water, the other birds fishing in the water with their long pointed beaks. We just followed the clearing until we came to a view of the lake, Lake Harris and I am not sure which one, there is little Lake Harris and Lake Harris. I did not want to get too close to the lake, since I was afraid of water and alligators. We stopped at that point taking in the views and at that point the summer sun had started beating down on the previously comfortable morning.
“Time to go back and get to the YMCA” I announced. The summer rains came almost every afternoon and the pools closed. We turned around to go back to the park, but to my utter dismay, all we saw was water, the lake and no way out. We must have made turns while coming up the grassy path and could not find our way back. My first reaction was panic, but I decided to remain calm. Panicking would scare the children and we would have had a mess on our hands. There were no cell phones in those days and no way of contacting anybody or calling for help. My heart was pounding and I remained calm. I had left the baby's stroller in the car and the weight of the two year old was beginning to get to me. I had to pick him up when he got tired of walking and had put his hands up to be carried. No wrapper to carry him on my back either.
Looking around one more time for a way out, because there had to be a way out, we saw land, the park, but the only way to get to it was a rickety old bridge which looked more like a rope bridge suspended over the water. I felt a sinking feeling, fear, panic, desperation, all combined. That bridge was the only way out and I could not imagine myself going over that bridge with a baby in my arms and five other little ones in front or behind me. I was alarmed and the children picked it up from the look on my face. They looked afraid too.
I had to make the decision to relax and abolish all panic and fear and cross that bridge back to the park and to life. I said a prayer. The children waited patiently. I announced to them that we must cross the bridge to get back to the park and that we had no other choice than to cross that bridge, and we must not be afraid since there was nothing to be afraid of. Deep down, I was numb with fear, but had no choice at the time. Fear was not going to help me in that situation. I prayed out loud and asked God to take control.
We crossed that bridge and there was total silence as we walked on that rickety bridge and it seemed to have taken for ever to cross it, shaking and almost swinging, but we crossed it and as I got off the bridge, I turned around to look and I fell on the grass on my knees thanking God for bringing us back across that shaky bridge with the lake under it and all that could have gone wrong. The children told me later how scared they were but had to follow when they noticed that I was not afraid. If they only knew how afraid I was initially until I put our situation in God's able hands.
That incident is one of our favorite memories of the good old days. All that could have gone wrong are what we talk about when we discuss that day. We crossed back to the park, to the car and to the YMCA, swimming, and other fun activities. The bridge was behind us and life went on.
In life we as humans, get to rough, tight places and where there seem to be no way out of such situations. God in His infinite wisdom and mercy, always provides a bridge to get His children out and unto the abundant life He planned for them, even before they were born.
Who is like Him? Nobody. Enjoy this piece below and have a blessed day.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0Zc_VWJJoI

HOW TIME FLIES: (Jan. 28 2011)

On my way to work yesterday morning, my favorite radio station was talking about the memorial service for the astronauts who perished when the space shuttle Challenger
exploded exactly twenty five years ago. I could see it all again in my mind's eye, all the preparation, all the enthusiasm of having a school teacher in space, and the experiments she was to perform in space. The excitement was palpable. The news was all over the airwaves.
I could remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when the announcement came over the radio at work. I had just finished punching my time card and was in the locker room hanging up my winter coat. Then the news came over the airwaves and there was a hush. Then people ran upstairs through the side door to the hospital lobby where a television set was on for patients and visitors sitting around for various reasons. It was a cold morning and the news added an extra pinch of coldness to the morning.

I felt numb as Christa MCauliffe's face on television played before my eyes, as she talked to newsmen and women, on television with her class, with her husband and children and and with her elderly parents, so proud of their daughter. It could not be, I thought. It had to be a dream. It had to be the dream, but no, it was not the dream. I was standing in the locker room at work wide awake. It was real life. News kept trickling in as the morning progressed. The crash of the shuttle was caused by ice formed by the very cold weather. After efforts to clear the ice off the shuttle in Florida where the weather was usually nice during the winter, the shuttle was cleared to fly. I had never been to Florida then, but the television always showed nice sunny weather when there was snow all over the place in Boston. A co-worker was at that time selling land in Florida and the pictures in her brochures showed beautiful sunny skies and landscape, no hint of cold or ice. And now the space shuttle had just blown up in Florida because of cold weather and ice. Relocating to Florida three years later familiarized me with the occasional weather swings possible in the Sunshine state.

The explosion of Challenger brought such grief and disappointment, and then time did what it does best and people forget. It was the bombing of the Federal building in
Oklahoma city that brought back memories of such loss of human life unexpectedly, as in the case of the Challenger accident. Who would have known what was lurking in September 2001, the day the twin tower terrorist event which changed the world forever happened. Each time I travel through an airport now, I remember the guys who gave us the gift of airport security checks and reflect on the days, when one could run to the gate from the check-in counter and barely make it to get on a flight and when people could come to the airport and park just to watch airplanes land and take off. The good old days.

Humans beings will continue to do the best in their power tp prevent accidents and mass deaths. Once in a while,they will fail and terrible things happen and cause serious pain and damage and disappointment and always, God helps the human spirit to heal and go on. The crew of the space shuttle Challenger, a group of trail blazers, a number of firsts, lost their lives that fateful cold morning of January 28th 1986. Twenty five years already and the heart broken families have mended, built memorials and moved on with their lives.May the souls of their dearly departed continue to rest in peace. Amen!!!

Chinwe Enemchukwu
Jan 28 2011.