Father's Day

This year is the second year in a row (and ever) that I have been away from my dad on Father's Day.  Last year he was planning on coming to Erie on his motorcycle for the weekend to visit, but the weather was bad so he didn't come.  Understandable.  This year, he had surgery on Friday so he was not able to come.  Now I knew this surgery was coming and it wasn't anything major, but I was still worried.  I spoke with him yesterday and he just didn't sound like himself (as is expected a day after surgery).  However, I spoke with him this morning and he sounded 100 times better!
Because of this, this entire weekend has been kind of stressful - a lot going through my mind.  Whenever this happens, I always pull out my KAIROS folder and read through everything.  For those of you who don't know, KAIROS is a retreat I went on senior year of high school.  It means "God's time."  Something special in that folder is a poem my dad wrote me called "What makes you smile".  I'm not going to re-write the whole poem - just some of it.

 Are you wondering what I speak of?

Not if you've pleasured there yourself

Yet there's nothing to remind you

Unless you've met this little elf

It matters not the age

Be it forty or just seven

The only way to describe it

Is "a little bit of heaven.".

If you've known  it for a lifetime

Or for just a little while

be she 40 or just seven

It's you little girl's smile

If you're the daughter or the father

Know the value in this smile

She giving great enjoyment

He holding gold for just a while.

Every time I read this poem, I can't help but smile.  It always lifts my spirits.

Because I could not be with my dad, I made it a point of saying "Happy Father's Day" to every man I saw today.  Every time I said it, the man would smile and say "Thank you".  I'm sure some of them didn't get to see their sons and daughter's today, but I hope that by me saying those three little words, I made their day better.