Tomorrow, my endlessly interesting father is turning, well, I mean, it’s hard to say.  “One year older” will suffice.  Age is rather meaningless to a man who has spent the past 5 years reversing his carbon footprint.  Oh he’s DONE IT, let there be no doubt about it.  More importantly, he’s enjoyed the trip.  Saturday night my sister’s family and I shared a lovely birthday evening (that stretched well into the night) with Pa Pa Bill and his fiancee, Kathy.  Kathy is equally interesting, and you give us a bottle of wine, some cake, and bellies full of stir fry?  It made for a very special evening indeed.

As you would expect, the banner was hung.  But at the last minute, I got the idea that the girls should paint a paper banner to compliment our fabric pennant.  I think they rose to the task beautifully.  And I love freaking out my sister by saying 45 minutes prior to guests arriving, as I stand in my pj’s (at 3 pm), hair in a bun, vacuum in my hand, “HEY!  Let’s pull out the PAINTS!  GIRLLLSSS!!! WANNA PAINT?!”  Jenny’s jaw dropped, I threw the paint supplies at her, and jumped in the shower.  I’m the most awesome little sister EVER.

So, for my Dad, I would like to share with you a poem he shared with me in March of 1995.  I was struggling to outline my Nursing School Graduation Keynote Speech, and Dad gave me this poem by Dr. Dawna Markova, and it became the outline in and of itself.  It is so dearly my favorite poem.

I Will Not Die An Unlived Life, by Dr. Dawna Markova

I will not die an unlived life.

I will not live in fear

of falling or catching fire.

I choose to inhabit my days,

to allow my living to open me,

to make me less afraid,

more accessible;

to loosen my heart

until it becomes a wing,

a torch, a promise.

I choose to risk my significance,

to live so that which came to me as seed

goes to the next as blossom,

and that which came to me as blossom,

goes on as fruit.

And how does a family of brainiac dorks finish off a birthday party?  We watched a documentary, because the only thing better than information is MORE information.  We watched “Between the Folds”, an intriguing look at the potential cross between origami and science.  I swear, I clapped at the end.  SO TOTALLY COOL.  It will take your thinking about proteins and coordinate chemistry to an entirely new dimension.  You might have read that sentence and had a mini-stroke at just how geeked-out I can get, but seriously, someday we will get to the root of why our bodies go haywire and make cancer cells, and the root of that answer will lie in the origins of origami.  Plus, watching the girls and their cousin Avery eating crackers and folding paper into pretend origami shapes at midnight while watching the documentary was beyond priceless.  Even the Kel-belle made it to the end, paper in hand, clapping away.  Some apples don’t fall far from the Pa Pa Bill tree.  Happy Birthday Dad!  You and Kathy are the absolute best.