My Dad would have been 72 today. Every day of my life since his passing in August I have talked to him just as I did before - asking him questions, telling him about his grandson, crediting him to countless strengths and weaknesses of my personality - because I know he is all around me in every part of my life and being. This is not a set-aside time but more ramblings throughout the day as I recount a memory or seek advise. I am always reminded of his strength, thoughtfulness, humor, and the way he sought his own happiness in everything that he did. He never relied on anybody to make him these things or to bring him joy. I have learned to seek my own pleasure and fullness out of my life by my own means, having learned that we all create our own paths and choose to be who we are and how we live.
We are celebrating his life today by living our own. We are grateful for all we have, what he has given us, and what he always will. I look in my son's eyes and see him. I look at my own smile and he appears. He will always be a part of me, of us, of life.
Happy Birthday Old Man
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He didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it. ~Clarence Budington Kelland
I love you. Thank you.
So beautiful Karla. I really love the quotation at the end--I think that describes how I hope my future children think of my parenting.
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