We celebrated Father’s Day around here today. It was fun...D got his long-awaited new GPS (ugh...so incredibly geeky. But useful!) and I was afforded the opportunity to take a THREE-HOUR nap this afternoon!! It was 10-ways fabulous. I made a good dinner, complete with homemade strawberry pie, and then we made use of the new GPS on a ride out in the country. I love summer.

This Father’s Day I’m feeling an acute sense of loss. Since D’s dad died in February, we had no grandfathers to honor and celebrate today. This is the 12th Father’s Day that I spent remembering my own dad rather than celebrating with him in person, so I suppose that sense of loss has grown more dull over the years. I still miss him, perhaps even more so now that I have children of my own who will never know him, but I grieve more quietly now, and I try to make my every memory a positive one. When the kids and I went to the store and picked out our cards for D, I was nearly overcome in the checkout line with the urge to weep. I realized that we were buying one less card this year. And one less card means two grandfathers that my children will never really know. It seems a little unfair, if you ask me. It’s one thing that D and I are living without our dads now, but we were fortunate to have them into our adulthoods, and each was able to see their youngest child either achieve their success or get well on her way to it. I wish that they could see our children into their adult lives. As much joy as I take in dreaming about the future of my children and where their lives will take them...how much good they will do in the world...how much joy they will bring to D and me... I know it pales in comparison to the joy their grandfathers would feel.

So today we celebrate D... and remember our own fathers... and enjoy the things they would enjoy if they were here to celebrate with us. The strawberry pie, the long country drive, and the children who make them fathers and grandfathers in the first place.