Show Up

One day, it will end.

Probably with plans unfinished, things left unsaid, and tomorrow still sitting there on the calendar. Perhaps in a most unremarkable way.

And the world will go on.

That is not bleak. It is a reason to get up.

Make your bed. Show up. Be present. Have at it.

When everything seems lost — when you are grieving, in pain, confused, or simply do not know how you are going to fix it all — you do not have to fix it all.

Take the day you have been given and do the next thing.

Do something kind. Do something honorable. Do something that makes a difference for someone else, or moves one of your own dreams a little further down the field.

Perhaps all.

Bill Markham reminded me of that in life. His death drove it home.

Bill was the first person I met when I joined the Round Canopy Parachute Team — a man who led with humility, faith, and a quiet strength that never needed to announce itself. He gave me my Blood Wings, and was there for my first hug and a handshake in a field in France. He stopped for people. He chose what was right. He moved the mission forward.

He never waited for perfect conditions. He just showed up.

None of us gets to finish everything. None of us knows which ordinary morning will turn out to have been one of the precious ones.

So while you are here, show up.

For your family. For your friends. For the people who count on you. And sometimes, for a new pal who simply needs someone to be there. These stories matter.

Get up. Make your bed.

And have at it.

This Saturday, Wells Jones and I will join hundreds of Airborne veterans at Palatka Airbase for one final jump from Tico Belle — a memorial tribute to Bill Markham. One more time out the door. For him.