A family of Giants. I am richer than I was the day before with stories of my grandparents that I never heard, pictures that I never before had the pleasure to see. This is history, my family’s history. Stories that need to be told while the historian is still here to tell them. Stories that need to be heard while minds are still healthy enough to retain and recall the information. For this is how family lives on long after them no longer being tangible.
Determined to learn all that I can. My family will live on through me. This is what I’ve come to learn about my family of giants. We are not made up of black and white. We are not made up of many shades of gray. We are made up of colors. Bold, subtle, loud, quiet, gentle, edgy, give me your attention and leave me be…colors. Comfortable in our skin, we are. Deep thinking intellectuals, we are. Unapologetic dreamers, we are. You need only look at my reflection if you can stand the blinding light.
Yes, we fall but oh how we rise. We succeed simply because in this family we dare to try over and over and over again. If you haven’t heard that is where success lives. It lives in the not giving up. It lives in the living another day to say “Hey I made it through!” It lives in the brave enough to be vulnerable. It lives in the “Just because you say I can’t doesn’t make it so”. It lives in the solitude of prayer. It lives in the support of greatness. So you see…it lives in my family. It lives in me.
“Do your best and be your best” my Aunt Dorothy tells me. “Be true to you” my Aunt Dorothy tells me. “Live your life in such a way as to look back regretting nothing” my Aunt Dorothy tells me. “You’re so much like me I can’t take it” my Aunt Dorothy tells me and we laugh…yes out loud, with so much exuberance that the world might mistake my joy as vain for drawing so much attention, not being the least bit shy about being observed.
I will admit that saying goodbye to what I’ve yet to part from has me wrestling with puddle filled eyes eventually giving way to a few streaming tears. That’s when I look at my Aunt Dorothy and I say “Will you miss me?” and she says “I miss you already.” I say, “Tomorrow, when I start crying and I will, pay me no mind. It’s just my way.”
Well, tomorrow is now today and I must move along
but I’ll forever be hearing your voice singing a song
or reciting a poem in a way that only you can do
Smiling on who you are, authentic and true Limitless like the sky, strong as a tree
such a big part if you lives inside of me
I’ve had so much fun it’s been beyond a thrill
I love you for being you and I always will
With LOVE, wonder and infinite possibilities…
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