On Fathers

My sweet, intelligent, beautiful-inside-and-out niece Cory recently wrote one of the most masterful pieces I've ever read about a day trip she took while on vacation in Hawaii recently. That day trip turned out to be one of the most memorable experiences of her life. It's a rather lengthy essay, but well worth one's time. If you have some time, and a desire to read something that is absolutely beautiful, it is posted to her blog at http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=66764242&blogID=360287362.

In her essay, Cory wrote of her relationships with the men in her life, both past and present, including the men to whom she's related. On her Hawaiian day trip, she had an epiphany about her need to embrace "God (the father)" as well as the mother Goddess. Some folks have difficulty understanding the concept of two Gods, one a father figure, and one a mother figure, especially since we've been taught since early childhood that "God is our heavenly father".

For those of us who had a contentious relationship with our earthly fathers, the idea of a loving, nurturing heavenly father is often difficult for us to embrace. I can relate to the love and nurturing I received from my mother, however, so the concept of the duality of God, male and female, is something in which I personally find a great deal of comfort.

Don't get me wrong: My father loved us all more than we probably ever realized, and he showed it by working his butt off in order to feed us and put a roof over our heads. But he himself had not had a very good role model to show him just how loving and affectionate a father can be. And who knows? Perhaps his father's father hadn't had a good role model, either, and so on and so on.

My children and grandchildren have all been quite fortunate in that they have had loving, nurturing fathers. My children have the most wonderful father one could ever ask for. Both of my grandchildren's fathers are good, solid, salt-of-the-earth young men who have and will continue to make outstanding fathers.

But not everyone I care about has been quite so fortunate. And yet some of them have made very good lives for themselves in spite of it. So even though having a loving, caring, nurturing father is ideally the way things should be, perhaps it is not absolutely necessary in order for one to make the most of his or her life. One particular member of my family (who I'll not name here in order to protect her privacy) has proven that to be the case better than anyone I've ever known. She is one of the most centered, "together" people I've ever met, and my respect and admiration for her is endless.