Happy Birthday to my most wonderful Dad! I am heading over to celebrate his ninetieth birthday this weekend! A most interesting life lived, full of care and love and thoughtfulness. My Dad has lived his life richly and fully, setting out very intentionally to deeply experience and love life. He has a wide range of interests, from beautiful artwork and music to all things technical. He is always expanding in his interests and is a gardener and reader and deep thinker. He especially loves the sea, and has settled for his last thirty years on a small island by the sea. I remember when he was looking for this island home. He wrote a list of all that he wanted in his home and kept looking until he found it. A couple of acres on the sea with a point and sloping sandstone beach on an island that had always seemed like home when we visited on the boat. Our first purchase on that island was beautiful native sweaters. I remember the day the creator of the sweaters sold them to us and we enjoyed their rugged softness and beautiful colours sitting on the dock. Before that he loved roaming the coast in our steady converted fishboat, Tuya. Tuya reminds me of my Dad. Solid, deep keeled. Slow and steady and though rolly in a sea, safe and secure. One memory that I will never forget was one summer evening on a glassy sea pink and red with the setting sun near Thormanby Island, close to flat sandy beaches stretching for miles. We sat together in the wheelhouse, quiet and speechless in the beauty.
Always giving to so many, especially his family, another favorite memory is his help with school projects. He taught me to write my thoughts on pieces of paper that would then get scattered over whole floors and then pulled together into essays. I still write the same way today. Together we worked on an amazing project of the parthenon, made from carefully rolled pieces of paper. It is forever etched in my mind. Thanks so much Dad!
A chartered accountant for most of his life, even still doing work for many, my Dad has an amazing attention to detail. He is determined and intentional, kind and giving, deeply committed to my mum and to all our family. He has never stopped growing and learning and moving forward in life. He reads widely, and loves his tablet and computer, knowing more about things technical than me!
Happy Birthday, my dearest Dad. You have given me and so many others a rich legacy. So much of you is etched deeply in the core of my being. Thank you. I give you deeply my love.
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