715 WHEN I MISS MY DAD ...

Another close friend has lost a beloved parent, which makes me want to publish a post presented some time ago, so, here it is ...

 Each time I learn that the parent of a dear friend has passed, I wonder what may be said in comfort when loss is as profound as that.  Today, this is what comes to mind ...

Once a life has been spent, our parents' spirits live in our hearts as my father's, now, lives withn mine.  While growing up,  I always felt safe, looking up at this godlike figure, with my small hand held lovingly in Dad's.  When perplexed by questions, concerning love or life ... or death ... Dad offered answers, which made sense, thus easing a small child's confusion

During his last years, Dad loved climbing the mountain behind our house; he loved grapefruit and the brilliant blue of the desert sky.  Today, when aching with missing my dear friend, I spend time with my beloved father in this way ...

While swaying back and forth, cradled on our patio swing, my gaze sweeps over to the grapefruit tree planted in his honor and up toward the mountain that Dad loved to climb with five strapping grandsons in tow.  Each time I breathe in the tree and the expanse of the bright blue sky, I see my father's smile, beaming down from the peak of our mountain, just as his smile beamed every time he walked toward me, eager to wrap his 'child' warmly within his embrace.  As this vision eases my longing for my irreplaceable friend, longing subsides and inner peace is mine.  As I've comforted myself countless times, this makes me ask ...

What did your parents love?  Did they share my dad's love of landscape and nature?  Is there a specific tree that you can plant and nurture as your parents' love nurtured you to grow into the warm and courageous souls I am happy to call friend?  If you look up at the sky, perhaps your parents' smiles will beam down upon you just as my Dad smiles at me, every day ... 

Every spring, the sight of small, green grapefruit, the size of peas on 'Dad's tree', inspires my spirit to smile with thoughts of the countless ways my father drank in the fruits of life.

Whereas many lose parents too young, I had the good fortune to nurture my dad's spirit as he'd aged just as he'd nurtured mine during my youth.  If there's one thing I've absorbed, concerning profound, irretrievable loss, it is this ... we who have been raised by parents, who nurtured family and dear friends, naturally, are on the receiving end of the best that life has to offer ... And having absorbed the loves nutrients, it's been my good fortune to offer up insights into love and life that may, hopefully, nourish hearts and spirits, reached by the posts that the communication instructor within me chooses to write, one following another, day by day.

And as with every day, I hope you can feel my friendship hugging you close wherever you may reside throughout this wide and wondrous planet, which we've named Earth.  :) Annie