Thursday, January 29, 2009

Today is not about the running

Yesterday was my dad's 80th birthday. If you are a Facebook fiend like I am you can see some great pics of him on that day there. My sister sent out 75 letters to friends, family, congregation members of past churches and others asking them to write a favorite memory or story about dad. He's a colorful character who has always marched to his own drum while being a loving and attentive father to us and husband to our mother.
He has always been difficult to buy gifts for. He has expensive taste and usually will choose his gift and tell us how much it is. HA! We are always happy to do that because the alternative is always something he wouldn't like.
The responses came pouring in and my sister compiled them very creatively into a scrapbook. His reaction was priceless. This man who loves designer clothes,sports cars(has a prized 1990 two door jaguar in the garage)and the finer things in life was speechless.
I don't think he realized how valued he was,how many people he had influenced throughout his 80 years. His response later was a classic. He said "If I'd gotten this book at age 30 I would have lived my life a little differently."
I think that's true of all of us. If we knew those that we helped along the way and HOW we helped them...wouldn't that make it easier for us to follow that "good path"?
Maybe we should live like someone is going to fill our scrapbook when we are 80 with the things we did to help them along in life.
It's food for thought, that's for sure!

3 comments:

maggie moran said...

This is great Susie! Oh, so often this type of story telling happens at the wake! What a special book!

Susie said...

Thanks, Maggie! It brought for me a renewed respect or maybe a deeper respect for my dad.Sometimes living with family as an adult can take the edge off of remembering how wonderful they are. The "daily grind" has a way of doing that. For my family, we all were refreshed by it and continue to be.

sage said...

Happy belated birthday to your dad