Gifts: my Daddo :-)

I’ve been pretty quiet here…..I haven’t had much to say. Well…that’s not exactly true. I’ve had A LOT to say, with all that I’ve had on my mind….but I haven’t been able to organize my thoughts into a blog entry format…..so I haven’t.
I wanted, though, to share one thing:
I watched a video yesterday that was shared via the ‘wonderful’ world of social media. In that video, women from a variety of different positions of professional/political power shared their story of how amazing their dads were, always encouraging them to never settle, to dream bigger, to yearn for more, and to work hard to earn it. For a moment, I thought, ‘heh. Lucky. I can’t imagine what it’s like to have that….’ And then I mentally smacked myself. I did. Just not from the person who filled the role of ‘dad’. My paternal grandfather gladly filled that role for me. Oh what an amazingly strong and determined man he was. Sadly, specific memories that I have with him aren’t as detailed as they once were, but for the first 12 years of my life, I sure enjoyed him in my life: star-gazing together, laughing, playing, enjoying. I hated to watch golf, but he loved to, so I would sit with him and watch, bored to tears, just to enjoy time with him. We got to see him every other weekend, on Sunday, all day….visiting. He always made his grandchildren (or…at least me…I don’t know about everyone else…) feel like we were the center of the universe. He wouldn’t allow a frown to stick around for more than a moment. Oh and that man LOVED. Man did he love. He loved so intensely and hugged so tightly.
I’m a bit sad that I can’t remember the sound of his voice, or details of his face, or details of conversations with him…..but I will never forget how he loved me and believed in me.
We can ignore the gifts we’ve been blessed with and focus on the crap, whining and complaining. Or. We can focus on the gifts, grateful, and maybe even learn to find gifts in the crap.