All my life I heard many wisdom filled one-liners from my father's mouth, many of which I still say today. They all remain gold nuggets of wisdom to me. I can hear him saying to me, "Barbie, everyone should strive to learn something new everyday." My father LOVED learning new things, even up until his death at 81. Even then, he still enjoyed learning new things daily and would grin from ear to ear when he learned something he had not known before. My father also loved people. He used his love of knowledge and people to work together hand-in-hand to make him a wonderful, caring and diligent friend to all who got to know him. I believe one of the reasons I love people so much is because he modeled that before me. I watched him reach out to everyone, regardless of who they were, what their status was or where they were from. He just loved people and loved learning about them. He took time to take an interest in them and invest in their lives, many times at a great cost to himself. Today, I met someone I hadn't known before and am praying that my love for people and knowledge of who they are and what makes them tick will be the blessing to them just as my father was to so many. I hope you'd be proud of me dad. I miss you and the wisdom you imparted in my life. I'm forever grateful.
2 comments:
Dad would be so proud of you Barb. A family does live on for I too am repeating some of the very same things Dad and Mom said to us. Guess that's because those words last through generations. One of my favorite sayings is "you can rip the skin off of anyone and we then would all look alike". I remember many a night on the back porch and Dad would have people of all color and all type just chewing the fat. Dad believed it was so very important to be fair to everyone regardless of color, race, culture, income. So can one man make a difference? He did in my life as we taught our children just as Dad taught us. Not quite sure our daughter has ever seen color. She and her husband adopted into their family two children from Ethiopia making their family members total seven. Thank you Dad for teaching me that all men are created equal. Your granddaughter would thank you too for she learned all men are created equal. You would be proud that generations can change and you have made us better people in God's eyes.
Is not Dad just the handsomeness. I love this picture of him.
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