Thinking of Dad today- has it been seventeen years already? Even so, I can still see the gleam in his eyes when I close my own and the disarming smile that allowed him to interact with all walks of life. I don’t have any recordings of him, yet I hear that larger than life laugh of his that sometimes echoes in my own. So many life lessons given, many of them opening with those familiar words, “Let me tell you a story…”
Stories are what sustained me seventeen years ago. Because Dad passed around the holidays, friends and family called on us and visited. In the dining room, we had two large cork boards covered with pictures from his full, if too-short life. Without fail, this image or that would spark something, and our visitors would share a story that would turn our tears to laughter and smiles as we raised a glass to him.
Yule hasn’t been the same for me- how could it be unchanged? There are moments when I ache, but for the most part, I am alright. I am certainly not alone in this regard. So many of us have our reasons for the holidays being a complicated time, as well as our ways of handling this reality.
This shortest day of the year is now a quiet time amidst the blur of the holidays when I take stock of my own life. How well have I applied his lessons to me? What have I accomplished this year? What would he say if he were here today? To say that my life has taken many unexpected turns would be an understatement, but I went from being on the ropes to things looking up. I’ve done things I thought impossible, and am planning my next steps toward more “impossible” goals.
The last piece of advice, his final lesson to me is something that I have taken to heart. It was the most difficult thing, but it is something I think about every day. “No matter what, be happy…”
That’s a lot harder than it sounds, and the consequences reach farther than oneself. It is so easy to let this world and these times strip the joy and light out of one’s life. The path of least resistance is to succumb to bitterness, and once that takes root, it colors one’s actions and can spread those whose lives we touch.
So on this shortest day of the year, I share my Dad’s wisdom with you all and invite you to be happy. Do something today which gives you genuine joy. Follow a dream. Smile, even laugh, and let that light in you shine so others may also be in turn inspired. Do this tomorrow, and the day after that. It doesn’t have to be the same thing, but do something every day, no matter how small, and be happy.
Before we know it, the days will grow longer and our lives will be brighter.
Blessed Yule.
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