Journal

I posted this on the main board, but I think that it is something that should be shared.  I had something remind me of this story today.  This is a true story that happened to me as a young Trooper.  It is one of my favorites:

Here is a bit of background for the story to set it up. 

As a young VA State Trooper I was assigned to Orange County.  My actual duty post consisted of Orange, Culpeper, and Madison County.  The area office was in Culpeper and I had to go there every few days.  I rarely went through Madison County because I considered it a backwards county.  When I traveled to the area office I had a favorite route that would take me through Orange and into Culpeper without going through Madison.

One extremely cold night during January I was working.  It was about 8 in the evening and really dark.  Snow was still on the ground and there was a stiff breeze blowing from the mountains.  I decided that I needed to go up to the area office even through I was up there the day before.

For some strange reason I passed by my normal route to Culpeper and decided to take Route 15.  Route 15 was a two lane road that lead to Culpeper but it also went through Madison County.  This was my least favorite route and to this day I have only one thought for the reason I made a snap decision to go that way.

After I was in Madison County I noticed a vehicle on the side of the road.  Normally I didn't stop for vehicles in Madison County because I wasn't that concerned with it.  I couldn't tell if it was occupied or not either.  I got about a mile away and finally decided to turn around and check the car.

When I stopped at the car I found a young man trying to get it started.  In the front seat of the car was a woman and her new-born baby.  The father, who was working on the car, had just picked them up and they were on their way home.  It had already began to get cold inside of the car so I told the woman to take her child and sit in the front seat of my police car and warm up until we got things taken care of.

When I went back to my car to call a wrecker I talked with the woman.  I said "I bet that you were very concerned having your baby in the car and it being so cold."  She responded by saying "Yes I was.  I had just prayed to God for some help and right after I finished I saw your blue lights."  At that point I was floored.

They got into the wrecker after the wrecker had picked up their vehicle.  I don't remember their names but I will never forget what she had said.  No one will ever be able to convince me that this was all a strange coincidence, God sent me there to help them and remind me how wonderful he is.

OF A DARK PLACE

by, Matthew T. Borders

When happiness is all gone

And hope can't be found

When you've fallen in a pool of self pitty

And with your last breath you nearly drown

You will finally know the place

That I call home sweet home

It is the place that you sent me

But I moved in and made it my own

And one day like a light

Came freedom from the pain

It was when my mind found numbness

That your haunting soul was slain

But I stayed there in teh blackness

Licking the blood that I had spilt

When I found that guarded chest

Where you hide away your guilt

So maybe I opened up that box

Shouldn't you know how I feel

Woefull cries are my ally

And your happiness is mine to steal

Oh it is a dark, dark casium

That won't go until you've numbed your mind

How do you like the place you created

When you left me behind.

Time

Oh time stands still

Long enough to pass us by

It won't come around until

The new daylight glimmers

A ray of light where hope is found

FInally I will climb out and leave you

Where once I had fallen down

Sailing Down the Chesapeake

by, M. T. Borders

Tonight I sail

On the stiff back of a gale

Never looking back

Seldom dropping sail

All I have known

Is the lonesome sea

Nothing else has loves so much

and all else I have loved has left me

Last week I docked in Annapolis

When the winds were still

And prayed for a powerful breeze

To give my sails their fill

The next morn I left for Solomin's

Under a reefed Main and a number four

Beating into the waves

In search of another timely moore

Last night I anchored in Tangier

Being chased into port by a Nor-western wind

And held fast in a storm shelter

To wait for the storm's end

And the Bay's water ravaged

As the rain swirrled around

The wind howeled through the rigging

Making that woefull sound.

I think that I will sail to Hampton

And try my luck in the southern Bay

My trusty boat and I sail the breeze

Watching the future fade away

And I pray that God speed my passage

By sending me this powerful gale

For I wish to sail the southern waters

So tonight I sail.