Six years ago on St Patrick's Day I received word that my father had died. He had cancer, from his many years of smoking cigarette. It was a quick death, hurt his back in December, went to get things checked out and they had discovered he had cancer. They thought to open him up to remove the growth but cancer has a funny way of spreading once it's exposed to air... a little something that doctors neglect to tell you. By January he had lost so much weight my stepmother told me I needed to fly home immediately to see my dad which I did in February without hesitation. They had neglected to tell me that it was as bad as it was to protect me I guess. The cancer had progressed through his body so quickly by the time I saw him...he looked like death.
A week later he passed.
My dad was a pretty cool cat. He was a dj back in the day, had over 3000 old school records from Frank Zappa to the Temptations. Wore those hip white suits with blue shirts and a tilted hat to boot. Was an artist who constatly painted our garage with disney and poo characters for me though rather abstact at times. A photographer who had so much crazy cool equipment he was the envy of the neighborhood. A top computer engineer for the _boe for more years than I can remember. Smart, intelligent, employed, handsome! He was pretty kick ass for the most part and I was very lucky to have him as a parent.
The other death, a term I like to use as a metaphor as it was the beginning of a life changing event, doesn't deserve much attention any longer as I like to think of it now as a stroke of incredibly good luck.
This past Saturday was the first time I celebrated St Patrick's Day in years. I mean really celebrated it. And I had a blast. Giving a silent toast to my dear old dad on Saturday I celebrated St Patrick's Day with my wonderful extended family and once again I was left with such great and loving feelings and thoughts of how lucky I was to find this ultra supportive and creative environment.
Not since I traveled around and did the Renaissance Faires have I been surrounded by such a incredible group of people. And the funny thing to me is that a few friends have said that I've transformed into a new person... truth of the matter is, I've always been this way. It's not a transformation per sae, it's just a return to self. Of what I was before and how I've always been with a few added extras.
So anyways I just wanted to say that St. Patricks Day will no longer be a day of mourning for me but a day of celebration of life. laughter. friendship. adventure. celebration. love. and luck.
Life's just too short for anything else.
No comments:
Post a Comment