Good morning and Happy Father's Day, Riverside.
In November 2018, the band Mumford and Sons released their album "Delta." Some Saturday morning that month, I had all four kids in the back of the van, headed South on that stretch of highway where both the 215 and 60 are one when I first heard the song, Beloved. The lyrics so deeply moved me that I had to pull over to wipe my tears.
Earlier that year, I stood frozen and watched my dad incoherent and laid out on a stretcher in between the ambulance and the ER doors at Riverside Community Hospital before being rushed away to multiple rounds of brain surgery. The depth of fear and love from those memories came flooding back while I was on the side of the road when, out of nowhere, I scratched these words on the back of an envelope:
Most men stand on the shoulders of giants
I sat up there on one
His hands lock around my ankles
Mine rest against his cheeks
Up here I see what strength is
What love needs to believe
I'm on my own two feet now
It's so much harder here to see
A month later, I printed those words out and gave them to my dad in what turned out to be the last Christmas present I ever gave him before he passed away.
Relationships with dads can get complicated. As a father myself now, I am intimate with just how easy it is to do this work poorly. I am incredibly fortunate to have had such a great dad. I'm so glad I committed to pressing deep into an authentic and meaningful relationship with him before he passed.
With a spirit of gratitude, I encourage you today, no matter the status of your family relationships, to take a risk in communicating your love to someone who wants, maybe even needs, to hear about it.
I'm rooting for you.
