Each day brings an opportunity to consider one’s blessings and express gratitude for them. That’s what I’ve been doing these 700-plus days. There are times in the midst of this process when I am cranky and ill tempered. Even then I have disciplined myself to stop and find the blessings, pull my unruly thoughts together and formulate them into words that can convey to a reader the things for which I am grateful. This night is no exception.
I am grateful for the love of my sisters that surrounds me and is now routinely part of my life. For most of my adult life I’ve lived in locations apart from my family. My siblings have mostly lived in one of two places throughout our adult lives: in our hometown in Indiana and in the Washington DC metro area. I was always the outlier, the only one who didn’t live in one of those places. When I lived in Pennsylvania, I lived a comfortable driving distance (less than four hours) from DC and could periodically drive down to visit my sisters. When I lived in Michigan, I lived a little over two hours away from my brothers and father. When I lived in California, I was thousands of miles away from all my siblings but had both of my children with me for a time. Now that I am live in the DC area near my sisters, for the first time in over 40 years I live in the same area as all three of them. Thus, no week goes by without my connecting with them in person or on phone. It is what sustains me when life gets challenging.
Today is Father’s Day–my third without my father. I am grateful for these opportunity to celebrate his life, though I find myself still surprised ad how much I miss him. Facebook today was lit up with peoples’ posts about their fathers: numerous old pictures of fathers in uniforms, black and white shots of fathers in various activities, and current pictures of my siblings’ children wishing them happy father’s day, of friends of mine whose fathers are still living. It all made me a bit sad. Still, I am grateful to have had my father in my life for as long as I did and to honor him for who he was to so many people. I am grateful for the legacy that he has passed down from him to me and my siblings and to our children. I see in them and I see in myself various physical similarities and mannerisms that are so like our father it startles me. I am oddly comforted to know that sometimes the way I hold my hands or make a particular facial expression that I am a mirror image of my father. So on this father’s day 2013 I honor and celebrate my dad.
My Dad, Roland W. Chamblee, Sr.
I am grateful as always for all things family. Even though we have our share of bumpy relationships and thorny issues, my belief is that love will always shine through allowing us to rise to any occasion. But then of course I am a bit of an optimist. My hope and ongoing prayers is that we who remain will continue to be close and stay connected. I have to believe that it’s what Daddy would have wanted.
