peace, love, blessings

it's Christmas eve and i'm just putting the finishing touches on a vat of lentil-barley soup that i will be sharing with my son in an hour or so. then we will join some friends to walk through Winterhaven, a local neighborhood that features extravagant Christmas light displays every year--like, you have to agree to participate if you buy a house there.

then we are going to our annual Christmas Eve service at St. Francis in the Foothills, in honor of my father, gone 5 years now. i've told that story before, i think, but i'll tell it once more for the anniversary--and then i think i'll be done with it.

he fell and hit the back of his head on Christmas Eve of 2002. he generally felt OK, and was checked out by the nursing staff where he lived, but later on started feeling headache-y and strange. so, he went to the ER, where he slipped into a coma in the waiting room.

he was on blood thinners, and had been bleeding slowly into his brain stem all day. he was pretty much gone by then, but hung on until the last little lamb (that would be me) could straggle in and say good-bye. i arrived the afternoon of the 26th, and he died that evening.

so, Marshall C. Guthrie, Jr., i bless you and hereby give away your legacy of short temper, high irritation level, inappropriate humor, and emotional abuse of family members. but i am keeping your strength, your integrity, and your wonderful personal charm that made life-long friends of your business associates. (too bad you couldn't spare much of that charm for your wife and children, but hey, we're all here to learn, right?)

i dedicate this post to all who have lost parents and struggled with what to keep and what to let go of, on any level.

and thanks to the LIGHT for coming back!