Dear Family:

How rich this life has been.

I am honored to have shared a portion of it with you.

I am uncertain as to how I enriched this life to receive such a reward.  But I am grateful to have shared it with you.

It’s time again to focus on the season when you worry about jobs, bills and making it through the snow.  As for me, I simply focus on you.  I hope your days are filled with enjoyable work, and a safe journey back and forth to wherever you wish to go in life.

I have hope you experience happiness.  I certainly wish for goodness to flow into your lives:  success raising your family; success in your work; your marriage; your everlasting goals.  I hope you find a way to keep the family whole. 

I wish for your ability to work through your problems in life.  Problems seem to be strategically placed in life to trip you up just when you think that everything is beginning to go smoothly. 

I wish for you to learn the worth of the relationships that gave you life, and those who made life worth the struggle upward. 

I wish most of all that you learn that love (eternal commitments) truly last forever, and that no one has the strength, ability or understanding to destroy that love.

I wish for you to learn how to keep child-like thoughts.  I chose to pursue life in a manner that allowed me to make play of whatever it is I did.  I never learned how to be old.  I hope I didn’t miss too much.  My love never grew old. It changed me forever.  I kept it simple.

I never really learned how to properly express my commitments.  I ached inside trying, yet sometimes I failed to be everything expected of me.  Sometimes I simply ran away, unburdening those i love, and allowing space for their free agency  … sometimes I sought shelter from the hurt.  I always knew of my place in their life, and gave space whenever I saw it.  I am truly sorry for those who counted my weaknesses.  I can tell you, from the depths of my soul, I never said “I love you” that it hasn’t lasted to this day … and I would expect it to be true eternally.

There should be a more focused way for us to learn how to properly reach that point we all ache for.  When the expression of love approaches the deep commitment living deep within our soul. 

If you were to learn from me one last lesson, it would be this.  If you feel you were not allowed a proper father, make yourself one.  If you are my daughter, pattern your life in the shape of your mother.  If you fail, try again.

I hope you won’t feel any disappointment because you don’t have everything in hand to enjoy. This is a gift from the heart.  I hope you know that.

Know that I think of you often.

                                                Love,

                                                Dad