A pirate looks at 40 ~ The Admiral

It’s our captain’s 40th birthday tomorrow. It's been a rough month for him full of loss and heartache so I wanted to do something meaningful for him. It’s hard to get a gift for someone like our captain so instead of buying him something, I made him something. I put together a video looking back at his life over the last 40 years. I’ll let the video do the talking but I will say this about Steve: it’s rare to find a man who has lived his life putting others before himself. A man who has loved his children with everything he has, even if their choices take them in different directions. A man who has risked his own life to save others. A man who puts God first in everything he does in his life.

A recent discussion I had was about heroes. What makes a hero? Who are the modern day heroes? Famous coaches, athletes, movie stars, billionaires? These are people who are worshiped like gods and who’s only qualifying trait is they know a sport well, they play a sport well, they are good at pretending and they made lots of money. These same "heroes" live lives full of selfishness, debauchery and sin. Are these the type of people we should be raising up as heroes? Not at all, in my opinion!!! How about the men and women who put other's needs before their own? The ones who risk their own life for others? The ones who sacrifice things they want so others may have it. The ones who serve their country, their community, their family, their Lord God. The ones like my captain. My husband. The father of my children. He is a real hero. A real man. A real father. A real veteran. He is our hero.

I recently came across a poem that hit home for me. I don’t know the author but I share it with you today in honor of my Hero, my Captain, my Steve. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY!! I love and respect you beyond words.

You are my rock, my anchor, and my sea. I live within you, yet you hold me fast. I breathe your soul. Your thoughts so blend with mine I can’t distinguish a dividing line. Before our love is unimagined past. There is no after – now is all to me.

I love you with a tenderness my past could never fathom. Before your love was mine, the person I remember wasn't me. There was no rope of love to hold me fast to life’s one truth within its restless sea, nor happiness to help me draw a line.

Winds of the world blow wild and free, and fast obliterate the most enchanted line. But there is now a well of love in me well past the wind, the turbulence well past, a serenity within me more than mine, an inner calm more endless that the sea.

Through love we’ve found a love past yours and mine. I will hold fast to what is best in me. Love draws its own shoreline and pounding sea.