My coworker recently teased me about scheduling my lunchbreak to coincide with the Navy’s Blue Angels Flight Demonstration team’s twice-weekly practice. Surely, she said, after all these years, it must get old and boring.
Um, no.
Since 1985, when I started working onboard Naval Air Station Pensacola, the home of the “Blues,” I have taken every opportunity to watch them zip across the sky.
I have watched from the parking lot, the front ramp of the building, the third-floor window, and even the rooftop. And every single time, I feel like an excited kid; I have to refrain from jumping up and down cheering in delight.
I am impressed at the pilots’ exemplary skills and precise abilities to execute high-speed, split-second, heart-pounding maneuvers. I’ve held my breath as the jets shoot heavenward, break, and appear to plunge uncontrollably earthward. I am thrilled by the screaming low-altitude sneak pass of a solo jet. I am awestruck as they roar overhead in a tight wing-to-wing formation.
As I sit on the seawall, watching the jets regroup over the Gulf preparing for another flyby, I realize why I never tire of their practice sessions:
I am watching the fulfillment of an aviator’s passion.
I am witnessing the culmination of years of study, hard work, sacrifice and dedication.
I have a front-row view of dreams accomplished.
Suddenly, I feel a gut-deep stirring of my own passions. Extinguished hope begins to rekindle.
When all six jets thunder overhead in perfect formation, my heart soars with excitement of my own dare-to-dream possibilities…
…And that, my sweet friend, will never get old.
The Lord answered me: “Write down this vision; clearly inscribe it on tablets so one may easily read it. For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it testifies about the end and will not lie. Though it delays, wait for it, since it will certainly come and not be late.” ~ Habakkuk 2:2-3