Mom and Dad are celebrating 60 years of marriage this week, so I am celebrating them with my writing! My dad has come a long way. This year he celebrated I believe 35 years in recovery. To write this post is TRULY a miracle in and of itself! And last year, I started writing my dad a letter around Thanksgiving and it made it to him sometime after Father’s day. I started this on Nov 29th, 2014 and I am sure it blessed his heart. I share only a part of it, with you.
I love you are a storyteller.Storytellers have a heart for perspective. And for teaching. And I know this about you. That you are indeed a teacher and one who loves to offer instruction to the lives of others. I think that may have been the essence then, of how perhaps you and mom came together. They fact you cared so much about others, and offered good advice to those you loved. Reminds me of me and Tim. Reminds me in fact of why I have fallen in love with all the men I have overtime. Just about all of them were storytellers. The loved to reminisce. And so do you.
I love you for your deep thinking. You are such a deep thinker. You sometimes share your thoughts, and other times you don’t. I know you have mostly shared them though, and despite how people have often felt about them. ( Smile). My husband is such a deep thinker. And he often reminds me of you in terms of how he shares his thoughts. He loves to tell stories, and so do you.
I love you for just being yourself. And introvert, one who draws insight from sitting in quiet, observing and watching and noticing… I love that you have found solace in that. And that you retreat and find quiet whether to pray or just be by yourself and with God.
I love you for your love of nature and fresh air. You have left that embedded deep in my heart. Because of you, I now live in (or near anyway); the woods. I love fresh air and sunshine. I think about all the rides we went on as a family in the car, and how I fell in love with the sky and the clouds and moments with my family driving in quiet, and looking out windows. The countless drives down south and the love for navigation that fell in my heart as we drive distances to Georgia, California and the Grand Canyon, and Painted Desert.
I love you because you are very compassionate. I know mom is a teacher, but you are lovely in your reach for others. I believe
I love how you create memory.
Ok, I am going to try to separate this from photography, but I don’t know how successful I am will be. ( smile) I love that you take people inside of an experience, and you represent such intrigue… in terms of how you offer the experience. I mean, do you know what am talking about? I love that you like to have good times, and you represent “this aura” – if you will, around having a good time. Like, you love people, and it;s shown through positive expression and regard for others…. it’s also shown in how you embrace others and welcome them in for the first time. How you enjoy meeting them, and having them be a part of what you are experiencing, and welcome them. Your mom had an uncanny ability to do this, and you SURELY picked this up from her. I always remember Mur’s smile ( my grandma), and welcoming gestures and nature. And you are the same in this respect. Experiences are not lost in our lives because of how you captured them for us in photos and stories.
Okay, I love how you love photography. I love that one time you went with me to catch the sunrise, in North Carolina. And that we missed it the first few times, but you woke up again and again with me until we caught it. I cannot explain the joy photography has brought into my life. It seemed to all begin to take off when I went to South Africa. When I decided to get serious about photography and documenting lives through photos. And I ant you to know, I am not finished. I want to produce short films and documentaries now. My plan is to take a course in the fall to work on further developing this gift I have. I sincerely believe I would not love photography as much – nor even be able to make money taking photos, had I not seen you chase sunsets and develop and chronicle our lives over the years.