Happy Belated Birthday Dad

When we were at retreat we were supposed to think about people that have had a profound impact on our lives.  There are several people who have impacted me greatly.  Some are obvious and others not so much. 

My Dad was defiantly one of those people.  His birthday was on the 9th.  Since it conflicted with Mother's Day, I decided to wait a couple of days and start another project about people who have impacted my life.  Sort of a shout-out to my Dad.

How my Dad impacted my life is hard to verbalize, but he was a very wise man.  He had all sorts of pithy little sayings.  One of my favorites was "irreconcilable ski differences."  This phrase was coined when we were on a chair lift in Mammoth, and a man was walking down a mogul run under the lift and he yells down to his friend:  "I used to call you friend."  My Dad started to pick out all the ski pairs that had "irreconcilable ski differences."  It became a fun game.

He was also famous for redirecting me to focus on the solution and not the problem.  "Problems," he was known to say, "are like waves in the ocean, when one washes away, another one comes.  Some are bigger and some are smaller."  It isn't the problem that was the issue, because they will always exist, but rather your decision about how you wanted to handle the problem that he wanted to talk about.

I have talked about hearing my Dad's voice before we made this move. I kept hearing him tell me that the deal isn't done until the deal is done.  Or, more precisely, The house isn't sold until the escrow closes.  That was his way of saying, it ain't over till it is over, and anything can happen.  We didn't live by this "law" and found ourselves in quite a mess!  But, we embraced the solution rule, and things turned out ok.

My father was such a force in my life it is hard to pinpoint it specifically.  I am in a great measure, who I am, because of him. 

There are other people, who don't even know it, who have impacted me greatly.  I will share about that tomorrow!