Our Father, Which Art in Heaven...

Today is my Dad's birthday. Born December 11, 1911. He would be 100.

(I didn't even need a calculator to do that math.)

So, I've been thinking of him... and still missing him even though it's been 16 years since he passed over to the other side of life.

What a very different world he was born into. One that was much, much simpler. One with far less dependence on technology and far more self sufficiency. One where home made and hand crafted things - like the types of traditional woodcrafts John Waller makes - were common, and valued. I aspire to make my own personal world more like that world, even though I am sitting at my laptop writing this... watching Michael Buble's Top 20 Christmas Videos on a flat screen television as I write.

I guess 'more' would be the operative word there.

My Dad typed this poem on his old fashioned, manual typewriter... and all of my growing up years it hung in our bathroom, where he could see it every morning as he was getting ready for the day. I love it, and have made myself a copy to hang in my own bathroom... carrying on the tradition.

Look to this Day

Look to this day, for it is life,
The very life of life,
In its brief course lie all the realities
And verities of existence:
The bliss of growth, the splendor of action,
The glory of power.

For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision.
But today, well lived, makes every yesterday
A dream of happiness!
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, unto this day!

~Sanskrit Proverb~

It speaks to me of being in the present... cherishing each day for what it is... and all it brings.

A couple other 'Dadisms' that I treasure are...

"It is what it is"... a phrase I heard him say alot. And, something that I purposely call upon when things don't quite go the way I want or hope. Like sitting on that bench in the cold for an hour waiting for the train...

"Do not bruise a wound you wish to heal." Good advice. And something I wish I was better at taking heed to.

ditto on this one...

"A thought unspoken can fall back dead, but even God himself can't kill it once it's said."

Now... if that ain't the truth, I don't know what is...

One of my big brothers said recently that he thought my Dad would be proud of me for the gardening work with the willow and for my very great adventure... I hope so.

I like to think he's watching, and listening and cheering me on from that other realm... and loving me still, as I am him...

Happy Birthday Daddy.

Love,

susie