One Night

The clouds are lazy tonight. I like that.

Cicadas are out in full force. They're finding their cadence, learning their rhythm, earning the percussion they've so mastered, and yet, they don't even care what I'm thinking.

It's quiet out here on the porch. I can feel the warmth from my body dissolving into the cool concrete. I kind of like that.

I keep thinking that it isn't so hard to see in the dark... if you just quit looking for the light. It's true.

The air smells good. The rain moved in, lingered, and moved on. It left its mark, though. It's still hanging around, waiting on the leaves, on the grass, in the soil. It's waiting to change.

The moon rose late. It's fat, lethargic and ambivalent. Still, it's pushing the shadows of the few tall oaks farther across the field than they could ever fall. Think about that for a season or two.

This is just one night in your life... I know that.

But it's one night in your life when I know that you sleep soundly, secure, and peaceful... just twenty steps away.

That's why I breath in and out everyday, just so you know.

Because one night in your life is every night in mine.

Those Things

One of your Daddy's favorite Songwriters passed away last year. Ironically, he hailed from Georgia.

In more irony, he passed away in my hometown of Roanoke, Va. I just wanted you to know those things.

It's a small world but there is a whole lot of good sound bouncing around in it.

As an aside, your Daddy wrote a song about rain once too.

I think that Man knew what he was talking about.

Only Truth

I want to tell you about the hardest thing there is to accept, learn, believe in, and trust.

I found out that your Mom is getting married. I'm happy for her. She sought out happiness and it looks like she's finding it. I hope that is The Truth. She deserves to be happy just like anyone else. It's the only god-given right we can grasp. Well, if you buy into the whole "god" thing. Regardless, she's doing what makes her happy, and I Hope, what she believes will make You happy.

The Truth is that no one can buy into that. It's a matter of faith. Just like breathing is. Just like sitting down in a chair is. It's all about faith. It's all about hope. It's all about belief, I suppose. Believing in those things that we can't see, trust, accept, or learn beforehand. Like sitting in that chair. Like breathing with those lungs.

The first woman I loved wasn't your Mom. I know... shocking! She wasn't. She was just One. At the time, I thought she was The One. That wasn't the case. The first woman your Daddy ever loved was a redhead from Franklin County, Va. You've never met her. Maybe one day you will.

There were a few others that your Daddy loved between her and your Mom. I know... how can someone love that often? What the hell is love anyway? Well, it's human nature. It's what we think about when we think no one is wondering what we're thinking about and it's what we imagine when we think no one imagines what we day dream. But be certain, we all do it. And no one has a clue what love is. At least no one I've met. But they all know what it feels like and how to do it. That is how & why we can do it so often.

Loving someone is easy. It's the living with it that will kick your ass.

What I want you to understand from all of this is simple. I want you to see that people change, feelings change, hope changes, beliefs change, and ultimately your very own faith will change.

The Truth, though, it will always remain the same.

It's what you feel inside.

That thing that feels more right than wrong.

Babies, that is Truth. That's the only truth.

Earn It

 
People will eventually forget everything you've ever said. They will eventually forget everything you've ever done. The one thing they'll never forget, though, is the way you made them Feel while you said and did those things.

If you can close your eyes and fall asleep content knowing that... then you've found the definition of Honor.

It lasts and lingers longer than your own shadow. It's something you cannot sew on and something you cannot wash off.

It will follow you to the grave and it will end up being the only resurrection you'll never know.

Earn It.