His Ship Has Sailed....

So, today’s blog is about my Dad, whom I’ve blogged about before. But, today is a special day as it was 9 years ago today my Dad passed away. I like to believe he is somewhere warm, playing golf with his Dad and Mom, waiting patiently for the rest of his family to join him someday. The more time passes the less it hurts, but it’s always still there. Sometimes I get mad now, because when he first passed away I used to have dreams or think I felt him, but it’s been a long time since that has happened. I’m not sure what I believe in or what I don’t, but from what I’ve been told that’s a good sign…it means they have moved to the next stage in their life and are happy.

Where I was 9 years ago is a totally different place then I am now, so I looked up to see where everyone else was then too – so you get a sense of what 9 years can feel like. Below is a list of things that happened in 1999:

• The Dow Jones reach 11,000 points for the first time, closed the year at 11,497
• The shootings at Columbine shocked our Nation
• Lance Armstrong won his first Tour De France
• The first case of the West Nile Virus broke in the US
• MySpace launched
• Napster launched
• George Bush announced he was running for President
• JFK JR dies in a plane crash
• Payne Stewart died in a plane crash
• Matrix was the number 1 movie
• Best New Artist was Christina Aguilera
• Best Picture was American Beauty
• An F4 tornado roared through Blue Ash demolishing parts and killing four
• The Family Guy aired it’s pilot episode
  

It’s crazy to think how I felt 9 years ago today or what lead to that point or how I even moved on from that point but here we are and still standing. Below is the poem that was read at my Dad’s funeral by a family friend. I’ve always liked it and reminds me that he’s in a better place.

A Parable of Immortality
by Henry Van Dyke

I am standing upon the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze
and starts for the blue ocean.

She is an object of beauty and strength,
and I stand and watch until at last she hangs
like a speck of white cloud
just where the sea and sky come down to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says,
" There she goes! "

Gone where?

Gone from my sight . . . that is all.
She is just as large in mast and hull and spar
as she was when she left my side
and just as able to bear her load of living freight
to the place of destination.

Her diminished size is in me, not in her.
And just at the moment when someone at my side says,
" There she goes! "

there are other eyes watching her coming . . .
and other voices ready to take up the glad shout . . .
" Here she comes!