It’s Memorial Day and today I hang my American flag.  I hang my 13 year-old flag that’s very worn; the colors are faded and it bares many holes.  I worry for a moment if my neighbors think I’m cheap or disrespectful for hanging such a tired old flag but that moment quickly passes because I really don’t care.  This old flag that I hang year after year means more to me than just stars and stripes or a symbol that I too have much gratitude for all of our vets who have so selflessly and bravely fought for the freedom and safety of our country and others.

I continue to hang this flag year after year in honor of a friend and brave soldier I used to know.

I continue to hang it year after year for a friend who came over with his wife on September 11, 2001 to share in the grief our county was struck with on that very day.  And that flag I hang year after year regardless of its condition is the very same flag I ordered with my friends the day after 911.

I continue to hang this flag year after year in honor of my friend who was so inspired by the devastation on 911 he eventually reenlisted into the military.

I continue to hang this flag year after year in honor of my friend and brave soldier who, was so passionate about humanity he ended up in Afghanistan.

I hang this tired, old and worn out flag year after year in honor of my friend and brave soldier who never came home.

I hang this flag year after year in honor of  Sgt. Jon Stiles.

I know this flag will eventually be no more but as long as it’s willing to hang on proudly I will continue to hang it…year after year.

I am,
The Urban Mountaineer

My baby then…

This recent Mother’s day my daughter and I decided to chill on the couch and watch some movies.  We started to watch a movie about a stay-home mom of two children.  She desperately tried to weave in a career of blogging among all of the overly dramatized daily chaotic tasks of tending to the her children. I say overly dramatized not because I think raising children is easy, I say it because she forgot she was wearing pajamas while running out the door to take the kiddos to school.   This doesn’t happen in real life, I don’t care how busy things are, it just doesn’t happen. Continue reading →