Father's

Thank you for reading this blog.  I feel bad that I didn't get it out in the morning, but I feel good that I am here writing it now.  It is a beautiful day today, and I am so happy to be able to sit down and write my thoughts.

This last Sunday was Father's Day.  I couldn't help but think of my dad and the things I remember most about my childhood with him.  I am very thankful because my dad spent a lot of time with me and my sisters growing up.  He would play catch with us, he would rebound for us and play basketball games with us.  My dad loves fishing, and he would bring us on camping and fishing trips.  As a little girl, I got bored very quickly with fishing, but my favorite part of the trips were the evenings.  We would eat dinner, sit around the campfire, and my dad would tell stories.  I would beg him to tell the same stories, and we only heard them on our camping trips.  By the way, my dad is a great storyteller.  

I have just a few memories that are sticking out in my head right now, and I would like to share them and reflect on how they made me feel in the moment and now.  This first memory is when I was a little girl my dad started a game.  I am not sure if it was just him and me who did this, or if it was with my sisters, too, but every summer evening we would wait for the moon to make it's appearance.  Whoever noticed it first would say, "My moon", and the moon would be theirs for the evening.  I now live in an area where due to the weather I don't get to see the moon as often as when I was a child.  On clear nights, when the moon is so bright, I look up and in my heart I say, "My moon".

A second memory I have with my dad is that he would play catch with me and my sisters.  My sisters and I played softball, and my dad would throw us pop flies to catch.  We would do this for hours.  As we got older we would ask him to throw the ball higher, and I remember telling him, "Make me run for it!"  I loved catching a fly ball on the run.  It made me feel so good.  I remember the first time my dad brought home a wiffle ball and bat.  I was very young, and I never played T-ball.  I learned to hit the ball from that little ball and bat.  I remember one of the first pitches my dad threw to me; I hit it so hard that it grazed by the top of his ear!  He laughed so hard because he could feel it graze by his head!  I played softball on a team from when I was in second grade to eighth grade.  My eighth grade year, I knew it was my last year.  I did not want to play in high school, although I was good enough to where I could have.  I remember I was playing in my very last game, and there was a pop fly.  I was playing third base, and when you are in the infield, you have first dibs on any fly balls.  I ran back, back, and back, and I caught the ball and ran into the fence!  I made the winning catch!  I knew that I had ended my softball career on the best note possible by catching a fly ball that I was so familiar with.  I was so glad that my dad was there at that game.

My last memory I want to share is when I was six years old.  My dad and members of our extended family built the first house I lived in.  When I was six years old, my parents sold the house, and we moved.  My dad and I were the last one's to leave the house.  As we were approaching the end of the driveway, I said, "Dad, Stop!"  He stopped the truck.  I jumped out, and I went down to the patch of field that was stepping distance from our driveway (that could be seen from the kitchen window).  My sisters and I have a lot of fun childhood memories playing there.  After jumping out of my dad's truck, I made my way in the field, under an old oak tree, and I picked up a rock.  I walked back to my dad's truck, hopped in, and said, "I wanted something to remember this place by."  My dad didn't say a word, and we drove away.  My dad was amazed at how I was only six years old, and I was thinking in those terms.  He still remembers that, and so do I.  

In the spirit of Father's Day, I hope my reminiscing about my father may stoke the embers of loving memories with your father's (or father figures in your life).

Thanks for these wonderful memories, Dad.  Happy Father's Day, and I love you.

Happy Tuesday to you and yours....