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Chris Duel

Broadcaster, Soul Provider

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I dread this day every year

October 22, 2018 by Chris Duel Leave a Comment

That ominous day on the calendar.

I suspect most of us have one.

The day that takes you back.

In my case, it is the day that everything changed.

Tragedy rained from the sky.

October 22nd 1980.

It has been 38 years, but this day is always dark for me.

My brother Greg, piloting a fighter jet on a routine training mission with his weapons systems officer, ascended into the October sky from Ellington Field near Houston.

Their jet’s engines flamed out seconds after takeoff.

Training and instinct would demand they eject from the flailing jet immediately.

Except for one problem.

There was a neighborhood and schoolyard in their flight path.

Instead, they chose to pull the doomed aircraft sharply into an open field to their left.

And they were gone.

No lives other than the two young heroes were lost that morning.

But countless lives were affected forever.

Lives saved and lives grieving.

All these years later, still I grieve.

I dread this day every year.

But I’m thankful for my big brother, Greg.

And I dream of joining him in the sky one day.

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Filed Under: America, Autumn, Dreams, Feeling, Flying, Ghosts, grief, Heaven, Life, Love, Miracles, Soul, Spirit Tagged With: Air Force, Chris Duel, Flying, grief, Heaven, Icarus, Soul, Spirit, Veterans

The Last Time I Saw Greg

October 22, 2017 by Chris Duel 2 Comments

 

This is the last moment I saw my older brother Greg alive.

July 1980.

He’s goofing around and making all of us laugh, as he often did.

He was 31.

I was 19 as I took this photo.

I was a cadet at the Air Force Academy, aspiring to be a fighter pilot, like he was.

He had become an Air Force pilot like our father, who died when I was four.

We never know when we’re seeing someone we love for the last time.

We’re lulled into believing that there will be many more moments with them.

But this precious existence is fleeting.

On October 22nd 1980, Greg’s fighter jet’s engines flared out shortly after takeoff in East Texas.

Had he and his navigator ejected, the jet would have slammed into a neighborhood.

The two pilots chose to steer the flaming craft into an adjacent field instead.

That’s my brother, Greg.

Funny, Loving, Heroic.

It was 37 years ago today.

Seems like yesterday.

Seems like a million years ago.

Changed everything for countless people.

Damn, I miss him.

And I’m thankful to have had such a wonderful brother.

 

#ThisIsTheSacredMoment #BrothersOfTheSky #HighFlight

 

37 years later, Greg’s flight jacket hangs in my closet

(Above: Greg, his wife Mary Lou and children Taylor and Grant on the last day I saw him / Greg on Kelly AFB tarmac with F-100)

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Filed Under: America, Autumn, Feeling, Flying, grief, Heaven, Life, Love, Soul, Spirit Tagged With: #ThisIsTheSacredMoment, Flying, grief, Heaven, Love, Soul, Spirit

Giving Thanks on Thanksgiving

November 24, 2016 by Chris Duel Leave a Comment

GivingThanks

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving.

Break it in two…

Thanks + Giving

Flip it…

Giving + Thanks

While we rightly recall the holiday’s origins of a feast between the New Americans and the Native Americans,

We can also internalize it

Make it our own

In our modern lives

And give thanks

For all the blessings

We often miss

When we are clear

We can see those blessings

Everywhere

And realize

This Is The Sacred Moment

And give thanks

For this recurring

Yet one and only

Thanksgiving.

Thank You

For crossing my path

And being a part

Of my life.

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Filed Under: America, Autumn, Opportunity, Soul, Spirit, Thanksgiving Tagged With: Giving, Thanks, Thanksgiving

And Still I Grieve

October 22, 2016 by Chris Duel Leave a Comment

october22nd

 

A father.

A husband.

A son.

A brother.

A friend.

A man.

A hero.

October 22nd 1980.

Everything changed.

In the blink of an eye.

His life ended.

And still I grieve.

 

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Filed Under: Autumn, Flying, Ghosts, grief, Heaven, Life, Love, Soul, Spirit Tagged With: grief

We are Ghosts, Sleepwalking in the Dreamscape

October 1, 2016 by Chris Duel Leave a Comment


I was randomly flipping through a journal from last year and stumbled upon the passage above.

The word “ghosts” reminded me of the final track of Dan Fogelberg’s 1981 album, The Innocent Age.

The song is “Ghosts.” It’s mystical, haunting and evocative. On many levels, it’s my favorite Fogelberg tune and most people have probably never heard it.
It’s one of those songs that can take you into another dimension.

It’s fascinating that dimensions ranging from Heaven to Hell, from despair to bliss, are accessible in virtually every moment.

Here is Dan Fogelberg’s “Ghosts” via YouTube.  I didn’t create the video, but it’s not a bad visualization of the song…

 

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Filed Under: Autumn, Bliss, Cosmos, Dan Fogelberg, Dreams, Feeling, Ghosts, grief, Heaven, Life, Music, Shadow, Soul, Spirit, Wisdom Tagged With: #ThisIsTheSacredMoment, BeHereNow, Bliss, Breath, Consciousness, Cosmos, DanFogelberg, DownloadingYourSoul, Dreamscape, Fogelberg, Ghosts, Sleepwalking, Spirit, TheInnocentAge, Truth

Autumnal Equinox

September 21, 2015 by Chris Duel Leave a Comment

AutumnalEquinoxPic

 

(2am 9/22/2013)

summer has ended

i felt this coming

light and warmth waning

portending the fall
and the coming winter

while days draw shorter
and the chilly darkness grows

but for this moment

this one moment

this Now

all is equal

balanced

sublime

light and darkness

hope and fear

pleasure and pain

chaos and serenity

laughter and tears

koyaanisqatsi and bliss

the unseen world appears
translucently amid the twilight

i open my arms

gaze to the delirious sky

listening intently

to the music of the spheres

and I am equal

to the love

to the fear

to the euphoria

to the yin and the yang

of the great unknown

and I surrender

to the autumnal equinox

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Filed Under: Autumn, Beginning, Bliss, Cosmos, Equinox, Fear, Feeling, Music, Shadow, Silence, Spirit Tagged With: Autumn, Autumnal Equinox, Chris Duel, Duel, Equinox, Fall, Fall Equinox

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