Pop, and a life of service...

So, I've been thinking about my dad lately.

A lot of you know that he died in May of 2007. I miss him a lot, we were never close in the classical sense, that duty was left up to my sister. She and he were very tight. I always envied that.

However, there are so many stories about him. His life really is ripe for a Lifetime or Hallmark style Movie of the Week.

A couple of years ago, I found the obituaries for my great uncle and my grandfather. They died in the same year, 1939...my great uncle in a horrific (the obit described it) motorcycle accident where he was essentially cut in half and my grandfather took the wrong medicine somewhere around Christmas time. My grandmother was pregnant with their fourth child, my Uncle Larry,(who died in a freak car/train accident when I was 15).

Austin Cox, who gave the eulogy at my dad's burial in August 2007, was a close friend of my father's growing up. Austin's family ran the Quaker orphanage that my father and his siblings lived in for several years (the reason that they lived in an orphanage is a blog for another time). He relayed a story that was beautiful and amazing that showed that my father's tenaciousness started early in his life.

When my father arrived at the orphanage, he began to follow Austin everywhere. Austin is several years my father's senior. I believe my father was around 8 years old at the time, and Austin close to 14. I'll have to get the accurate details and update this at a later time.

Austin mentioned several things about my dad in the Eulogy. Alluding to his single handed triple play at a baseball game in high school...and that my father never lost a fight. Not because he was physically the strongest or the biggest, but because he refused to give up, no matter what the pain.

With that type of tenacity and competitiveness, you would think my father would've been some entrepreneurial tycoon or big time businessman...but he wasn't. For most of his adult life, my father worked as a humble (and sometimes not so humble) government clerk for the Social Security Administration. When he retired from his government job, he continued his life of service by driving a livery car. Carting people and their bags to and from the airports, old ladies to their classes, grocery shopping, etc. etc., always giving more to them than he had in many ways.

In many ways the past two years of my life have been a blur...four movies, a wedding, some other family dramas and my father's death...as I take this mental break from those stresses and look deeper into my own heart for my passion, I find that service is the word that continues to come forth.

I am beginning to believe that a life of service is the only life worth living....

It's all just so interesting....

My challenge to my "blog followers" today is to think of a way that you can be of service to your friends, your colleagues, your community or the world...

Just saw this cool article about Stem Cell Research....

http://www.madison.com/tct/news/stories/444614

My first blog

So, today I write my first blog....I am unsure why I chose to do this. I am not a writer per se, but well, figuring that decreasing my anonymity starts with being open to all things that will help me do that. Here I am....

So, let's get started...I'm sure as the next few days, weeks and months pass, there will be subjects and ideas I feel the need to write about. For now, let me just say, my life is filled with blessings..friends and family who can't be beat when it comes to being supportive. A husband who is dynamically in love with me.

I am completely grateful for the self-awareness that I believe I possess. It has helped me to listen when I cannot really hear what people are saying...what does that mean?

Well, when Sid and I fight (and oh, do we fight!), it tends to take days (sometimes weeks, and on a couple of occasions months) for me to translate what he means when he says things.

My current intellectual and spiritual pursuit is that of understanding happiness...and the nature of desire.

Pretty heady, huh?

Not really, it came out of one phrase in one fight a couple of months ago. Sid says to me "if you can't be happy with what we have, how will you ever be happy?"

In my life happiness has always been about accomplishing my goals, and being financially stable, blah blah blah .... contentment, success and happy were always interchangeable in my thought process. Over the past several months, with some reading, guidance from the teachings of Byron Katie and Dr. Wayne Dyer..and a lott of introspection (aka POINTING THE FINGER AT MYSELF)...I've begun to succesfully separate my definitions of those words...

It is possible to be happy without being content with life.
It is possible to be happy without a dream being fully realized.

There are so many cliches and witty sayings about the nature of grace and gratitude...if we really listen to them and take in their meanings...life begins to open up into an astoundingly fascintating journey...awareness of the journey makes it so much more meaningful.

I challenge you all to take a look at the things that bother you and the people you dislike and ask yourself...what does my reaction to these things say about me?


TTFN as my favorite Winnie the Pooh character so effortlessly says as he bounces away...