In Father's Footsteps

My glasses are still lost, but I've found something much more important. Something of higher value than some chic designer frames...

The other day I finally started a new book. It is a book that I was skeptical of...and just couldn't seem to lift the cover on for a few months now. "Why" this has been, I'm not completely certain...a variety of personal reasons I guess.

At any rate, it's my Father's first published book called "Life at the Crossroads: Reflections from a Country Store." I'd leave a synopsis and brief summary of the content, but to do so I think would cheapen a reader's first time experience...and I think it'd cheapen the words my father has chosen within. In short though, it's his memories and stories from his childhood, and the lessons he's learned from the humble farm and country store he grew up on. I feel so proud of him. And I'm impressed. Not only with the result but with the path he's walked to get where he is now. And I've had the vantage point to see him, hear him, observe him....under go some challenging life changes from the time he started to the time it hit the press back in October. I'm halfway through it, and I feel like I'm learning things about my Father that I've always known, but have never known. And that's a rewarding and incredible feeling that I wish I could more accurately describe.

The ways he presents his ideas...his vocabulary and word choices...even his punctuation, reminds me of HIM. My dad. It's him---and the stories are him...some of them I've heard so many times, even I could recite them ---> and I've enjoyed predicting "what he'll include" and "what chapter[of his life] comes next."

I'm laughing at myself, because I've never been so eager to blog as I am right now!

The book is the essence of my father: sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, contemplative, humble......and full of love.
Someday, if I ever have a family, I hope I'm like my dad and his first book.