For my birthday this year, rather than gas on about how wonderful my life is – and for Facebook purposes, let’s just say it pretty much is – I’d like to take this moment to celebrate the people who gave me birth, my parents, my mom and dad. My mother is quite simply the most spectacular woman I have ever met. All my life I have admired her for many things, but mostly for this one quality I marvel at with wonder and envy: her inexhaustible energy. My mother tries, and fails, and tries again. She never gives up on herself, and she certainly has never given up on me. But I never once saw her give into hopelessness or despair. She has made mistakes, as we all have, and she has learned from them, made them again, learned again. As we all have. And she has been through six lifetimes of trials and hardships, and make no mistake, she has been victimized from time to time too, as we all have, but has struggled mightily to never see herself as a victim. She has prevailed with her head held high where most would have surrendered to cynicism; she has never allowed her spirit to whither with time and disappointments; she has always striven to be better today than she was yesterday. And her efforts have paid off in her spiritual vibrancy, her youthfulness, her joy, her humor, and her quick mind. She has a sense of humor, an ability to laugh at herself that is uncommon for anyone of any age. And she has put up with me, when I have been short-tempered with her, and impatient that she wasn’t changing or learning or growing on my timetable, or to my specifications. She has taken those times when I challenged her and used them as opportunities to grow, and turned them around to teach me lessons of her own in patience, tolerance, forgiveness and grace. She never stopped believing in me, even when others would have. She never for a moment asked me to give up on my dreams, to get a sensible job, to do or say anything against what was in my heart and soul. She only ever encouraged me to the fullness of whatever I wanted and whoever I wanted to be. I have been blessed by many things in this life, but no blessing so much as to have been born the son of Marcia Dorothy Fisher. My dad is my best friend. He is always there for me. So often in my life when I have needed advice, wisdom, counsel, my father is the person I have turned to who knows just what to say. In a good story, the protagonist changes. I have never witnessed more of a change in one protagonist than the changes in my dad throughout his life, and he is the protagonist of a story of courage, strength, hope and change for the better, always. When I was a boy, my father was a figure of great intimidation. His height, strength and personal power were daunting to me, and to those around him, and he knew it, sensed it, and it was the core of who he was, his toolbox to get through life. But he went back to school in his mid-thirties, and studied the mind, and the soul, and through that study, began a journey to find his own. Together he and I weathered years of struggle and challenges, of pain and forgiveness, of power struggles and mutual respect, to finally arrive as father and son, confidants, and friends. He has taught me so much about the fullness of life. About what it is to be human, and flawed, and complex; and about the expansive humanity required for forgiveness. He has been a war hero, a salesman, a therapist, a healer; he has healed himself, psychologically, spiritually, and physically, against all odds, against doctors’ wildest expectations, with the sheer force of his iron will and the strength of his mind. I admire who he is and what he has accomplished, what he has survived, and what he has made of himself, far beyond money or possessions, but to become that rare thing: a truly good and decent man. Today I celebrate my parents on my birthday, and I thank them for having me, raising me, influencing me for good and bad, always doing their best even when they came up short, and for making sure I knew, even on the days when they may not have shown it, that I was loved. Mom and Dad, I love you back. David
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 04:00:18 +0000
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