HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Today is Father's Day. How strange it feels knowing I won't be able  to visit dad today as I do every Father's Day. Dad passed away at the age of 88, just before the holidays, after several years of dialysis and PAD. I still have a difficult time believing he's gone, but I will always hold him close in my heart so he'll always be with me. Happy Father's Day, Dad!

  ~THE DRAGONFLY~

Once, in a pond under the lily pads, there lived a water beetle in a community of water beetles. They lived a simple life with few disturbances. Once in awhile, sadness would come to the community when one of their fellow beetles would climb the stem of the lily pad and would not be seen again. They knew when this happened; their friend was gone forever. Then one day, one little beetle felt an irresistible urge to climb up that stem. However, he was determined he would not leave forever. He would come back and tell his friends what he found at the top.

When he reached the top and climbed out of the water onto the surface of the lily pad, he was so tired, and the sun was so warm, he decided he must take a nap. As he slept, his body changed and when he woke up, he had turned into a beautiful blue-tailed dragonfly with broad winds and a slender body designed for flying. So, fly he did! And as he soared he saw the beauty of a whole new world and a far superior way of life to what he had ever known existed.

Then he remembered his beetle friends and how they must have thought he was gone forever. He wanted to go back and tell them that he was now more alive than he had been before he left. His life had not ended, but had changed. But, his new body would not go down into the water. He could not get back to tell his friends the good news. Then he understood that their time would come, when they too would know what he now knew. So he raised his wings and flew off into his joyous new life!