father

I miss you. 

The innocence bubble popped when my dad died. He was never coming home again. I was eleven years old. Then a new, different normal began. 

I remember realizing when in college, I had lived half my life with my father on earth and half with him in heaven. Correspondence with my grandmother gave me insight into my dad. She couldn't get him to do a thing. It wasn't until LOVE came to him, in the form of my mother, did she see him DO the things she could never motivate him to do. LOVE is a force. GOD IS LOVE.

In Ashley’s Harvest Moon Café on a Wednesday morn, it happens to be St. Patrick’s Day, 2021. Drip coffee, refillable for free, and a coconut chocolate chip muffin warmed just right, starts my time of labor here instead of at home. I don’t thrive being alone.

I observe. People watching, one of my favorite pastimes, has desperately been denied. A plethora of people right before my eyes!

There’s a man with a cap that speaks of a sailor past; his silver crown hides his story. In the soft chair he reads for a few hours and leaves; I’ve not seen a soul speak with him.

To My PERFECT Father, ABBA,

William Henry True, III, is my earthly father. After his death, I received a children’s book explaining what happens when we die. It was signed in my mother’s handwriting. She signed it: from your Heavenly Father and your father in heaven. I was 11 years old.

I remember.

I remember the lights.

Red,

Rotating,

Shining through the lowered window shade

At night.

No siren.

I heard

Through the wall

My top bunk

His queen-sized headboard

Separated only by the wall.

I remember his breathing,

A repetitive pain,

In sync

With the rhythm

Of his heartbeat.

His breathing shallow.

I remember his sound

An enduring-through-suffering expression.

No complaint.

No “why me?”

No words.

I listened as best I could to Holy Spirit to capture Father's heart. Laura Hamo

Unscale the eyes and unplug the ears,

Another celebration of Earth Day is here.

Judgement

God is displaying it.

Are you hearing his warnings?

Don't make Him get louder.

He disciplines those He loves.