An Ordinary Wednesday

Time we steal away that can be spent with those we care about is precious. Sometimes it comes at the most unlikely times and under the most unlikely circumstances. Not too long ago I had the opportunity for just that. I was able to steal some time away that should not have been mine but was served up as a gift to experience something special that's already been tucked away as a treasure

Recently I found myself laid up sick after going home for what was supposed to be a less than 24 hour visit to see my Dad. During that visit when I was feeling better I wandered in to his office to find him doing all the things he loves. Talking to his friends, working at his computer and looking at family photos on his desk top.

I snuck in and he welcomed my intrusion glad that I was feeling better. Dad and I haven't had one on one time like this in a long time in fact I couldn't really remember the last time that it happened. In recent years it always was surrounded by other people, a crisis or trying to sort out a disagreement or simply life advice when I needed some one in my life to talk to who I felt unconditionally loved by all the time.

Our conversation quickly went down the road to aviation which rivaled my dad's love of his family. He was a lifelong aviator and pilot who was passionate and had found his calling at 14 and the passion still resided within him 70 years later at the age of 84. I was sitting , listening to the passion rise in his voice as he spoke about his career and the things that inspired him through his aviation years. He quickly moved into a model of a man with great knowledge not just my dad.

Photo credit: Wix Images

That ordinary Wednesday when I stepped into his office I was just coming to see my dad and catch up after being sick in bed for several days. However, as our conversation progressed he shared stories of his career I've never heard and I I saw him as a man and his humanity in a different way than I ever had in the past. He revealed some of the books and passages related to aviation that had influenced him and that he carried with him not only just through his career but in life.

I was fascinated by his heroic stories of dangerous ordinary days in the cockpit and the way he handled them with expertise and grace as he described them. Growing up all I ever knew was that every time he went away on a trip for work he always came back. I never really knew all the in between that had happened. Some of my fondest memories when he would return were the gifts that he used to bring us back as little children helping us connect to the places he traveled in the US and abroad.

It made me ask myself the question that if after all these years of being unable to see and know this other side of my dad, who else is there or was there in my life that I never really was able to peel back the layers to see them for who they were really were. It reminded me that many times when we meet people or they come into our lives what we see is just a snapshot of who they really are but yet we are often quick to think we know them in their one dimensional persona.

Sometimes we keep a lot of our multi dimensional selves undercover with others not knowing there's so much more than meets the eye. I decided to challenge myself to share more of my other self, the side I don't bring out very often to help not only my children but for others see me for who I really am without fear. Just think of all the wonderful special sides to ourselves we've yet to reveal.

i've always been bashful about sharing my passion for writing and yet it's something that fuels my soul and became somewhat disillusioned by some criticism in the past. However, it shall not deter me and it will continue to be an important part of me expressing who I am as I have learned that I am much better at expressing myself in the written word then I am verbally.

So hats off to showing others what your true passion is and let them see the light in your eyes when you talk about it and you express the joy it brings you and how it makes you feel alive. I'm getting back to my usual writing routine as the hiatus I've been on the last few months has left a void in my soul.

#staycurious