dad's birthday...

is today. He would have been 63. I would have given him his very fave gift - a Sears gift card so he could add to his Craftsman tool collection. It's a gift I always knew he'd smile about and once I finally figured that out, it's pretty much what he got for every occasion.

The kids and I went with Mom to the cemetery to send some balloons to Dad today. It's strange the things you do when someone's gone. We've been taking him balloons each year, and the kids love to let them go and we pretend that he'll be able to catch them when they get high enough. It may be a little silly, but after the strangeness of buying birthday balloons for someone you can't give them to, there's a sweet joy in watching them fly up, up, up...

I love the book Where Do Balloons Go? by Jamie Lee Curtis. It was given to me by a friend when my sweet Daddy Pat died over eight years ago. Although it's intended as a sweet way to explain death to children, it has brought me much comfort over the years. Releasing balloons today made me think of these words:

Where do balloons go
when you let them go free?
It can happen by accident.
It's happened to me.
Where do they go when they float far away?
Do they ever catch cold
and need somewhere to stay?
Do they keep going up?
Can they ever just stop?
I'm sure that they're always
concerned that they'll POP-
maybe caught up in wires
pushed by the breeze
poked by tall buildings
or tangled in trees?. . .
Then does it get quiet?
Do the stars give a shove?
And send it on high
to that place up above?
Does it float there forever remembering me?
And know that I'm happy that it's floating free?
Where do balloons go?
It's a mystery, I know.
So just hold on tight
till you have to
let go.

"No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him." 1 Corinthians 2:9