My father taught me how to row a boat when I was very young.
I liked to dip the oar on one side and go in circles; he let me go far off, making circles, finding my way.
I loved the water even then, especially at night when the phosphorescence glowed.
I loved the minnows swirling around my toes, close to the shore.
I loved to dig for clams with my feet.
All the places where the water pooled were my own private spaces; I build sandcastles with seashells and there was always a moat.
Then, I sat far off, and watched the waves carry it all away, sand and sea, bit by bit.
My father taught me how to sail a little boat and how to duck up from under when it capsized; of course, it did, and I came back up time and again.
When I was just a little older, my father placed my hands on the wheel of a big boat, and showed me how to steer; he taught me how to avoid the lobster pots, and how to watch the sky for inclement weather.
Funny, how those lessons stuck with me; I still make circles, finding my way, duck back up when I get pulled under; I take the wheel, trying to avoid those bobbing pots at sea.
The sea speaks its own language and the sea birds know it well; adventure lies upon every wave, and the deep, deep ocean has stories to tell.
I like the story of a father and his daughter set sail upon a shining sea, all those nautical charts just a blueprint of their life together.
1 Corinthians 2:9: “But as it is written, eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things God has prepared for those that love Him.”
1 Corinthians 2:10: “But God has revealed it to us by the spirit. The spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.”
This post is in honor of Father’s Day, and I want to wish all the dads out there a very happy day! My own earthly father was a wonderful man, and I thank my Heavenly Father for the great gift of his life.
This piece was posted on my first blog in August of 2018. (Linda’s Writing Corner, Christian writer in love with words, and in love with life. (lindaswriting139996633)
It has been awhile since I visited this site, and it is fun looking back…
(Picture of my father, John Emil Frost, with my first-born son in 1987. Centerport, New York/ Featured image at the top of post)
Just delightful!
Thank you! 🙂 🙂 🙂
A lovely reflection!!
We have learned so much from our parents! So many years later, we reflect on all that they have taught us. I do not know if we appreciate it in our younger years, but as time moves forward, we see how much they helped us in our passage to maturity. And, once we have raised children of our own, we see how significant those contributions are…even if it is just a listening ear, or ‘being there’ when someone needs to be heard. Listening is an art and one we so desperately need to cultivate in all of our relationships.
This reflection is just exquisite, Linda!! I’m very fortunate to have had a dad like yours.
It is a beautiful thing to look back on happy memories! Parenting is not an easy job!!! 🙂 I think we try to ‘pay forward’ all that we have learned to the next generation. I always think to myself that ‘perfection’ is not the issue. Did we love enough? And, when the answer to that is, “yes”, the story is always more happy than sad.
Parenting is not an easy job. I made many mistakes I regret, but love overcame them in the end.
We all make mistakes! You are so right…love is the only thing that overcomes everything! 🙂
🙂
Daddy’s & their daughters 💕
So true! Fathers must teach their daughters so many things they will need in life…to stay strong, to be true to themselves, no matter what the world dishes out. God is good. He is always good! A good father helps a little girl to see that she can be all she can be…that she is loved just the way she is on the day she is born. 🙂 And, that is a very beautiful thing…to simply be loved for who you are. (God planned all of that…)
What beautiful recognition of fathers, love, and the Author of love.
I love how you put that…the ‘Author of love’. Our Heavenly Father has written His words upon our very hearts. That is how we know the language of love at all…He has given us the words and the alphabet…it is our job not only to recite the ABCs. It is our job to give our very hearts away, each and every day. (Your poems certainly do that, Mary Jo…they are reflections from the heart.)
I’m learning, Linda. Thank you for sharing yours!
a loving tribute to your father and your passion for the sea!
Our fathers day is in September …
The sea captured my heart when I was very young. (I wonder if I had a choice, since my father brought me to any body of water upon every opportunity. 🙂 It was a great blessing in my life. On the other hand, my mother, being a girl raised on a farm, brought me into the world of green, growing things…and so, my love of the garden. I have often thought that should I live upon a boat, I would have to have some dock space for my herbs, and other plants. I have seen the most beautiful of gardens in the smallest of spaces…
and I bet you would do it well … but life has a way of sorting us out … you are right where you are meant to be!
🙂 🙂 🙂
Ah, Linda, you caught me big time with this one! That first line. My father taught me to row a boat, too. A wooden, round-bottomed old boat. We didn’t have the sea, but a springwater-fed lake where we spent summers. My rowing had to be very gentle, barely making a mark in the water, so I wouldn’t spook the fish below! We caught walleyes, crappies and northern pike, but the sunfish we could catch off the dock. He was the one who taught me awe as we spotted the blue heron across the bay, sitting proudly on the upturned limb of an old tree. And took me out one night when the northern lights were dancing their most vivid dance of our years up there. To have a gentle father was a gift for his three daughters, of whom I was the eldest. Thank you for this tender remembrance!
Oh, your remembrances sound so enchanting! I would love to see the Northern Lights! Yes, we were blessed with kind and gentle fathers! I remember once that my father pointed out the fish jumping in the ocean. He said, “All the animals of this earth take time to play. Remember that. It is good to work, but, you should also make time to leap for joy, as do the fish of the sea.” This is sage advice in a world that constantly admonishes people to work longer and harder day in and day out. It is as if every moment should be ‘productive’. And yet, when we look back at some of our finest hours, we spent time in nature, with people we loved, with God in holy places…a cathedral built of trees, or a girl and her father, watching a magnificent blue heron. I believe that God has given us a bit of heaven here on earth…but, we must be watching for the signs.
Love this piece! It reminds me of my growing up around the water with my father, similar learning experiences: learning to swim and row as well as learning about all the creatures, large and small, in the sea. Tomorrow would have been his birthday, and I still miss him!
Happy heavenly birthday to your dad! My father passed away in 1992. The years come and go; he is always close in my heart. I understand how you feel…we never stop missing the ones we love. But, the joy they brought us lives on, like a song you carry in your soul…it has no end. We always remember the words to this song, and the music has a beauty like no other. (Love songs remain a part of us forever…thank God for that! God knew we needed those notes, those memories, those things no one can ever take away from us.)
A very fitting tribute to a wonderful father Linda. When a father can pass on his sense of adventure, story telling, a love of the mysteries beyond and all the self learning that goes with it, he has given you a great shove into life.
That is so very true, Gary! My father was also a man of deep and abiding faith. His faith stories helped me with my own faith journey. Whenever I asked him for advice, he always said, “Pray about it before you make any decision.” It was the best ‘advice’ that he could ever have given me. Then, and now, whenever I struggle with something I am not sure what to do about, I remember to pray first…I may not get an answer right away, but God is there with me in the ‘waiting room’. Knowing that, makes the hard questions so much easier.
This is lovely & loving, Linda. It’s so wonderful to have sweet memories & the photos to go with it. God’s grip – Alan
Yes! God has blessed us with so many things…our cherished memories remain a part of us. We cannot go back, but we can remember the wonderful people who have shared our life journey…and all the adventures! 🙂
It’s wonderful how the lessons our fathers teach us stay with us! I just returned from our annual trip to the mountains with my father and brothers. Normally, I’m the lake side parent taking the grandkids who aren’t on board the boat fishing off on a geocaching or hiking adventure. This year, we had an opportunity to fish on a private farm pond and I got to cast a line for myself. Something I haven’t done for a very long time. I told my Dad how amazed I was that all the fishing techniques and tips he’d taught me as a kid came flying back.
Your trip sounds wonderful! The years come and go, but the lessons our parents taught us stays etched in our minds. Many of these same lessons we teach to our own children. It is such a beautiful thing…how interwoven the generations are.
I’ve read a lot of Father’s Day posts, but this was by far the best! What a touching portrait of a wise father who taught you lessons that helped you navigate your way through life. And although I know it’s not PC to refer to him that way, but I still take comfort in the thought of God the Father. Thanks for this, Linda!
My father was not a minister in the traditional way; he did teach me that God was always with me, that prayer was talking to God and he always listens, that God made everything, including me. Mostly, he reminded me each and every day that God, my Heavenly Father, loved me and that he would love me forever and ever. My parents brought me to church, but I always understood that ‘we are the church’. We keep the doors of the church open by reaching out in love to one another.
Such beautiful reflections, memories, and photos! A wonderful post, Linda. Thank you.
I cherish the time I spent with my father. To this day, he inspires me. He was the sort of person who always took time to watch the sun rise or set. He was a very busy person with a full life; but, life was never too full that he did not look up at the stars and thank God for his blessings. I try to live that way too, to follow his example; there, in that great sea of stars on a dark night, I often think of my dad. I thank God for his life, and for teaching me to see the beauty all around us day by day.
💙
My sisters and I were just this morning talking about my dad.
🙂 🙂 🙂
Such a beautiful post and way to honor Father’s Day and your own father x
Thank you! 🙂
Oh my, Linda, this is so beautiful. The connection between the water and your father is evocative. I connect my father with the water, too, in part.When we were at the lake he was the happiest, and he liked to play and work in and around the water. He taught me how to sail the sunfish and how to row the boat and the canoe. He taught me how to waterski. And he tried to teach me how to turn on the motorboat, but the motor was cantankerous and the boat was a lemon, very heavy, so I never could master that.
It sounds like you shared wonderful times with your father! 🙂 We don’t always understand when we are young all the things our parents teach us. Your father knew how to enjoy life and he taught you to enjoy it as well. If ever there was a gift to bequeath to a child, this gift is so important…it is a gift many people never master and that is such a pity.
I will say that my father and I had a LOT of difficulties as he was a troubled man in some ways, but that doesn’t take away from the positive things. Even little manners things, like holding doors for people. Like men walking on the “outside” of women on the sidewalk–which equated to me doing things like that for the elderly, children, etc.
Such a lovely reflection, Linda, highlighting the loving, attentive, and instructive ways of your father. My dad exhibited the same traits. Little did I realize how privileged I was during my growing up years. But as an adult, and after hearing of the experiences of others, I began to understand just how stellar my father was. Thankfully there were many opportunities to tell him so–he lived to be 94 years old.
You are so blessed to have had your father in your life for 94 years! He sounds amazing, and you now have these cherished memories of all that time together. My father was only 63 when he passed away. To those who loved him, it seemed much too soon. He was a person who made every day a bit of an adventure; he packed a lot of life into the days that he lived. All we can do in this life is celebrate the loves in our lives…those who have moved on to heaven, and those who are still here with us. 🙂
Now that I’m older myself I realize how young 63 is. I’m sorry you didn’t have your wonderful father longer. Praise God he will join us together again in heaven!
Yes! The people we love are never that far away because they live in our hearts. The years have come and gone, but I love my dad more than ever. That is the beautiful thing about love..it just grows and grows. I know that he is safe in heaven…but love is a bridge that crosses many things, even time itself in so many ways.