It’s Father’s Day.
I miss my dad.
He wasn’t the kind of father that taught me how to fish or change a tire.
He was the kind of dad who taught me to love poetry and truth and justice and the delicious oddities found in the daily of life.
I am spending this Father’s Day at the cabin. It was his home for the second half of his life and as I go through this day I remember cups of coffee and conversations, the rising of cigarette smoke and the rumble of his voice. I remember the ways that he paid attention and asked questions that invited me to move deeper into my life.
It wasn’t always easy between us. I remember that too.
On this day what I remember is the powerful pull that is love. From him life was given. Through him life was learned.
And still it is so.
Still it is so.
Living Waters 
Just sent this one to my son and son in law right before I read your tribute to your father.
Mark
Enjoy the cabin…. I am.
Greetings on Father’s Day, 2014
I’ve been thinking about the two of you, the new fathers. Kevin, this is your first one. Joshua it’s your third and soon you will get to experience the “double whammy!” Somehow at least as I recall, the second child seems to make life exponentially more intense. It seemed to be more than just adding another to the sum of family.
What do I want to convey. First of all how much respect, affection and admiration I possess for both of you within your fathering. When I see and hear you enjoying your daughters so, it warms me.
Recently I’ve been thinking of “do-overs!” All of us need the grace of “do-overs”so much. I realize this even more now, as I am fortunate to have “do-overs” in so many ways during this recovery. I really don’t know how fast the “brink of death” was looming. I did get to step away from it.
This week, I raised a crew of 5 to chip up the dastardly tenacious buckthorn cut down on the penninsula near the road. It went quite well, all of us working hard for a few hours. However there was an incident. The 15 year old grandson of one of the men, rammed a pristine four wheeler into the “rented chipper” that was behind his grandfather’s truck. All the plastic housing smashed, possibly the frame was bent and the damage to the chipper was noticeable.
Anyway, the kid will soon realize he gets do-evers because of the grace of his grandfather and how he handled it.
Josh, your grandfather gave you do-overs once with his “cub cadet.”
Now it’s your turn and mine to continue to make sure that these wee ones as well as old curmudgeons get “do-overs.”
I love you both.
Mark
Beautiful. Your children are blessed. Thanks for sharing this, my friend. E