Sunday, June 21, 2009

Celebrating Father's Day

Father! - to God himself we cannot give a holier name. ~William Wordsworth

I have just returned from a bike ride with my younger son. Besides the joy of being with my child on this day that celebrates fatherhood, I also felt the silent tangible embrace of That Which Is that can be so readily apparent in Nature for me. I called my father and left a message thanking him for his role of being my father. Although he is by no means without his shortcomings, knowing that there is a far greater "Father" has allowed me to forgive my dad his human imperfections and to accept mine as well in regards to my fatherhood. Fatherhood is but a role, a challenging one at that. It is an ongoing art form that can never be perfected. There can never be a perfect parent on this imperfect earth , every human, even if the most enlightened, has to work in the prism of being in a human body. My dad was one prism I have had the pleasure of being a son to, I am one prism and every father is a prism;but there is only one light shining through us all--our true Father.

I want to thank my earthly father for showing how to be: stoic when needed, strong, able to sacrifice one's own personal wants for the greater good of the family, able to tend an ailing wife for so many years, a gentleman with good manners, impersonal, one of few words in speaking while having a love for words, one who is disciplined and orderly, one on the outside who loathes (like Emerson) the herd, simple in one's needs, one who one who loves to travel . . .

May everyone find something for which to thank their dad and forgive them for all the mistakes.

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