With all the years gone by since my father’s passing, missing him and mourning his death have never diminished.  I’m thinking of him so strongly today….and how much I learned from him during my short 20 years of being his daughter.  Whenever I was sad, stressed, bewildered, or disillusioned with life as a teenager, I would wake up to find on my pillow, Kipling poems that he would write down from memory on a scrap piece of paper.  It was his way of telling me that life does indeed get tough but, the human spirit will always manage to triumph.  Being an artist and wood carver, he would surprise me with gifts he had made – usually out of the blue and no special occasion.  Although he hasn’t been with me for so many years, I’ve continually tried to make him proud --- Always done my best and always felt his love by my side.  I can’t help but, believe that he’s still sharing great poems with me, beautiful art, and scenes of nature that he doesn’t want me to miss.  I remember him so vividly, sitting on the front porch during summer thunder storms, watching spiders spin webs, or watching hummingbirds gather around his feeders.  And so, as I too enjoy these same splendors and probably have a lot of his same beliefs, I am ok with the woman I’ve become.  And I hope he is too.  I’m honoring his memory today…on no special occasion by sharing one of his carvings of an Aztec Corn God that he meticulously created not long before his death.  It’s one of my favorites and I’m pretty sure it was one of his as well.  I love you, Daddy and will miss you always.