Celebrate Life's Little Moments

My dad has been visiting this week from Albuquerque hence why the Ripple Man has been a little quite.  Sorry about that.  Wait no I am not and let me tell you why.

My dad and I share a very special bond.  I can't think of anyone I would rather spend time with than him.  I look so very forward to his trips to Austin not only because it's great to see him but but because we spend a lot of time fishing.  Though spring fishing let us down again this year, after all that's why they call if fishing not catching, we still enjoyed our time on the water and just the time hanging out father and son.  Although on this trip I found myself looking at him and the time we spent together a little differently.

We are coming up on the one year anniversary since my mom passed away.  I can't contemplate what a difficult year it has been for him.  Having been her sole caregiver for the last several years the void that was left in his heart with her passing is still very clear.  It makes me proud to see the love this man was capable of sharing with someone who in the end wasn't able to return it - at least not the way would have liked to have seen.  Alzheimer's is brutal that way let me tell ya.

At any rate as we fished, hung out on the couch or drank (mucho - that's many many my friends) beers on my back porch I found myself feeling a sense of peace and appreciation that perhaps I've never experienced before.  I felt truly happy to be spending the time with my old man and it pained me very much to see him leave yesterday.

I don't know if it was divine intervention that took hold of my heart and mind this trip but for some odd reason a little voice inside my head said enjoy these moments Steve.  Celebrate and Drink them in and savor them because they are somehow a little more special than they ever have been in the past.  Allow yourself to put work and stress out of your mind and just be with this man.

I hope that Dad could feel how much I truly enjoyed our time together.  Our conversations about books, our mutual interest in the iPad,  politics, my boys and of course my wife are etched in my mind and warm my heart and for that I am truly grateful.

Celebrate life's little moments my friends and allow yourself to slow down a little bit and to enjoy them as they happen.  I know I sure did this past week.

See ya in a few weeks Dad.  Can't wait to eat some green chile and drink a cold beer back in the ABQ!

Ripple On!!!

P.S. The picture above is of our last trip fishing.  My mom loved butterflies and we somehow feel like every time we see one it's her paying us a visit.  Well if anything made Dad's trip then it had to be when one landed on his shoulder out on the lake.  The smile he shows in the picture doesn't do it justice for what that "life moment" meant to us both.