Any day above ground is a good one

My dad always said: any day above ground is a good one!

My dad was born in the 30s, lost his dad as a toddler and grew up poor (poorer than the church mice to hear my dad tell it). He worked hard and lived a modest life – one which I never once heard him complain about.

Ever the optimist, my dad truly believed that every day we wake up is a new opportunity to write the story you want – an opportunity to explore new challenges or choose a new path. What he didn’t believe in were regrets.

As a young adult I always remember my dad saying “If I died today, I had a good life.” And it wasn’t a flippant statement – you could see in his eyes that he believed it. After he passed away, you could also sense it in the things people said about him. That he had a joyful heart, and wanted to share that sense of joy with others.

He had the light heart of a man who lived a charmed life, but his wasn’t one without trials. My family was tormented by a criminal in the 80s which almost lead to the death of my sister, my dad lost his mom to what is now known as ALS around the same time. A few years later my dad suffered a catastrophic heart attack.

He recovered from the heart attack and as kids were never really knew how bad it was until I worked one summer during college at the local medical clinic. The head nurse told me one day over lunch that she was on the team who treated my dad the night he came in and was still amazed that he had survived. She said it was the worst she had ever seen. “That’s my dad, beating the odds,” I thought to myself.

Maybe losing his dad so young, seeing his mom struggle, and suffering a near-life ending heart attack of his own gave him a sense of living on borrowed time, but no matter what life threw at my dad, he always looked for the good – the silver lining.

Above is an image I took with my macro lens.

I don’t inherently have my dad’s strength of spirit, but I try to let it guide me as best I can. I find him at times in the leaf-covered streets, the first snow fall, my daughter’s laugh, the sound of the ocean, a sunset, and maybe even more importantly, the sunrise. Because every time you see one, you’ve been given a gift. Don’t squander it.