Study hard, be smart.
Weigh the pros and cons of your decisions.
Stand on your own two feet.
Hard work is a key to success.
Dream big.
Love what you love with passion.
When you fall off a horse, get right back on.
Laugh a lot and often…
and you’ll come out on the other side just fine.
The View From Here: August 31
The view from here today is this: a shelf in my office. A still life snapshot: longtime friend Winne the Pooh, introduced to me by my Dad when I was a baby; my UMass diploma; the when-in-Paris photo with my friend DeLinda; a Wonder Woman mug; and the very last photo I have of my Dad.
He died less than two weeks later, August 31…twenty-five years ago today.
I always think: I’m glad I asked him to take off his sunglasses that day, because you can see his eyes in this photo. How they connect up with his smile, mirror his laugh.
I always think — if I look hard enough — I’ll see an angel hovering above our heads, hidden in the shadows, waiting.
I remember that day: a cousin’s wedding, the whole family together for the first time in 20 years, his laugh while he played on the floor with his great-nephew, the feeling of not wanting to leave, of wanting just a few more minutes with him.
Now it’s a photo that says more than I can ever tell you. And it sits on a shelf, next to the love he introduced, next to the education he encouraged and the travel he inspired. On a shelf, and on shoulders strong enough to carry all of that forward.
And more: me, Wondering through this life without and yet so very much WITH him. Every day.
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