Happy Father's Day
...to all the great Dad's out there!
We don’t appreciate our Dads half as much when we are kids. It takes a few years to find meaning in their sometimes misunderstood words of the day, their silent strengths, and perhaps some of their wordless actions.
It is sort of like that for me. I remember some of the “lines” my Dad used to use. He was of few words.
“If you don’t learn at school, you will have to go through the school of hard knocks.”
I didn’t realize that even as a University graduate and a metallurgical engineer, looking back on his life, he had things pretty difficult at times. But he never complained that I heard. It is only in reflecting on my memories of those times in relation to now that I realize it.
The following poem in honor of Dads is a memento to honor him, though he has long passed away. Like others, I’m sure, we all have those moments when, about our daily tasks, some obscure statement our Dads made might stop us in our tracks.
Even those things we may have disdained at the moment somehow come back to help us realize something important.
Because my Dad was of few words, most lessons he gave were without them. For example, when I was such a small child, he drove me one weekend to visit his mother and my dear grandmother. It was just us in the car, and we were driving one night through a violent hurricane where trees were strewn across the road, and occasionally, I witnessed some being uprooted and falling. Heavy rain was pounding at the windshield. Yet, he was so calm, for years, I thought that it was normal for trees to do that.
It was a sense of fearlessness he gave me then.
I remember other family road trips where he would be unusually funny and sing made-up or hilarious songs. Sometimes we drove on country highways, and one time a poor woman, or so it seemed to me, was walking alone in the dark on the side of the road. Even then, I had a helpful streak; my mother was good at seeing the best in people. I remember asking why my Dad refused to stop and help.
“Never pick up strangers,” he said. “You can never tell by how they seem. They could be just pretending, but really only dressed that way. They could turn on you.”
Yet at times, he was the soul of helpfulness for others. The strength he gave me to say no at times and to look beneath the surface of things has stood me in good stead.
So to all the great Dads out there, in honor of their strength and wisdom,
Happy Father’s Day!
All the best,
Trina
PS: If you need a card at the last minute today or this week, you can download the Father’s Day Card without charge. Just my way of saying thanks. https://payhip.com/b/7CtdQ