(September Bonus Share.) Today is my father's 84th Birthday. What to say about a man who was determined to show up better for his kids than his father was able or did for him. Yes and in the era of "Father Know's Best" and "His Word Must be Obeyed". He brought fear but, for me anyway, never terror. He learned from his children, the belt was not the way to discipline and he changed.
He made our neighborhood "kick ball field". Later he coached sports and helped lay down the American Baseball Field turf in Holland (of course all of us out there helping too on a Saturday). He could not understand why all the kids now are in leagues and busy after school. In his day they found an empty lot, self organized, and played games.
I am so grateful to my Dad for including me in his work and in his play. As the eldest I was the first to be invited on a Saturday "work day", carrying the cuttings (not always happily) to the burn pile as he coxed back the brambles for our play yard with his sickle and machete. (OK my teenage brother's were not happy to have to move the woodpile many years later but they did it and who knows what good it did them :) !)
That sickle, machete, and too the Four Finger Baseball mitt are in keeping here now. After the scaling down times, finally landing in assisted living and a new dimension, he has no need for them now. Yes, still I feel his intent listening, and his focus though his mind can drift into another reality.
I am so glad for the committed holding he did to support his family, through many adventures as expats and then as yankees in the southland. Four children in his keeping by the time he was 25 years old. I forgive when the grip was too hard. And I am glad to be able to support him as he moves in his final Earth days with his intense being!
(New England backyard ~ 1965)
Thank you Dad!
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