Lost my father at 10. He left a gift I discovered later

The question is, “What did your father teach you to be grateful for?”

My very long answer is this: When I was a kid my dad was the one who I felt comfortable around. He worked a lot and was home at night for dinner, mostly, and off and on during the weekends. We didn’t really spend time with our parents. When I was 10 my father moved out and left me and my younger siblings with my mother. That was what they did in the 60′s.

After that I saw my father on Sundays only. We did fun things, like go to amusement parks, movies, fishing (yuck), dinners and lots of cool things. I didn’t really appreciate this until I was much older. But I did finally get the commitment he had to us and am grateful for that every day.

It used to bug me that my father seemed like an ostrich – if there was something he didn’t want to look at, he would look away (or stick his head in the ground in my eyes). What I’ve come to learn now is that he wanted to see the positive and not the negative in his life.

About 15 years ago one of my cousins asked me what I got from my father. This is the answer to the question in a roundabout way. My father taught me to look at the glass as half full. It’s not that he taught me to be grateful for something in particular, but he taught me a way to be in the world.

He lived his life this way. It made some people totally crazy. But, in the end, I understood what inspired him and I am so grateful that I learned this lesson early in my life.

So, thank you, Dad. I love you.