Lucky boy - Happy Fathers Day Dad

Yesterday was Fathers Day 2010.

Another one has come and gone... number 57 in my lifetime.

There are actually very few days that go by I don't think, at least in passing, about the man God gave me as my father. I have considered many times how lucky I am to have been blessed with him as my dad. It is impossible to tell you how and why I feel this way. There is no way to relate 57 years of life into words with any accuracy, without taking 57 years to tell the story. Neither you nor I have the time for that. So you just have to take me at my word when I tell you my dad was the perfect dad.

I don't mean to say he was a perfect man. He was a man, like any other man, with all of his human flaws. But for me - for this boy - he was the perfect dad. He was exactly the man God new I needed to become a man myself. He was the perfect combination of strength, gentleness, humor, passion, love and caring. But above all else, his most important and endearing quality was the unrestrained passion with which he loved my mother. There was never a moment in our lives that my siblings and I ever questioned that love. It was obvious and out in the open for all to see every day of his life. I can't begin to explain how critical that one quality is for a boy to grow into a proper man... the man he was intended to be.

I read an article the other day by a man that felt the same way about his dad as I do. He talked at length about the wonderful years he spent with his dad and how much he misses him now that he is gone. He talked about the great sadness he feels sometimes at the loss of this great man. But... I like the way he ended his article... it quite made the point. So I will conclude this writing with an excerpt from that article.

"So here's the uplifting part: It's okay to feel this pain. In fact, when you've been as lucky as I was in the father department, it would be an outrage not to cry. You can't have an up without a down, a right without a left, an back without a front - or a happy without some sad. This is the price you pay for having a great father. You get the wonder, the joy, the tender moments - and you get the tears at the end too."

Happy Fathers Day dad.
I miss you, I appreciate you, I love you.