Beautiful Day.

My cousin Jenny, one of the many people who dedicated their surf yesterday to my Dad. You can't help but to feel connected to his spirit when you are in the water.

Ceceila came to sit at our beach, with my Dad's summer favorite : Fried Chicken and Corona , to reminisce about what a great man he was. 

Sumner Ave Love. 

"The Captain grew tired and let go the sails, 

stayed the winch and oiled the rails, 

looked to the east and let the ship go

The Son of Neptune, in the morning tide's flow

must leave us now...and we must let him go."

My Aunt Kate (one of Dad's SEVEN sisters) wrote this and posted it on facebook yesterday. It really was touching and I wanted to share it with you all. They called my Dad the Son of Neptune, and my mom had even had it inscribed on his wedding ring. Back to the sea he goes...

Rochelle, keeping us well fed with her delicious meals. Food is the way to our heart, and thank you Rochelle (And Karen and Bill Barlow) for the delicious, nutritious meals that have been sent our way. 

Mom and I woke in the morning and weren't quite sure what to do with ourselves. Usually I would make his juice and get his breakfast ready while Mom would give him a shower and get him dressed. So we came downstairs and enjoyed the silence for a bit (we had quite the packed house at 2 oclock in the morning). We cooked up a bunch of bacon in Dad's honor and had a huge breakfast. And then the friends started coming, which we needed.  My mom needs to stay busy, so she was shocking the pool, covering the pool, cleaning the hot tub, moving outside furniture and chopping down our cherry tree. She was giving out orders to Dad's friends, who were also happy for the busy work. Everyone channels their sadness differently, and mine is certainly NOT through doing chores (sorry Mom). I walked three circles around the house, crying my eyes out, before I threw my board in the car and said goodbye - headed for the beach. The water is somewhere that I have always shared with my Dad. Whether it was fishing, clamming, crabbing, tubing, surfing, minnowing, or just enjoying - salt water is our thing. I paddled out and was grateful that there was no one in the lineup that I knew....I had only slept a little over an hour, and my eyes were nearly swollen shut. I took it all in, working on one of the nature meditations that I read in an Osho book. I took in the smell of the salty ocean, the crisp clean scent of the cool breeze, I felt the sun beating down on my face and warming my whole body and I felt the warmth of the water on my skin. And as sad as I had been, and as sad as I wanted to be - I could only feel happiness and extreme gratitude. Gratitude to have been able to love such an amazing person, and to be loved in return. Gratitude to have been able to learn from him and to be shaped by him - he is so much a part of me, and in the water I really felt that. My cousin Jenny paddled out after a bit, her eyes just as swollen - and we hugged and laughed and shouted "LEFT RIGHT", and all those other ridiculous things my Dad would shout when he was in the line up. Our sadness transformed to laughter, and I knew that everything was going to be okay. Thank you Dad for the most beautiful Day, the most perfect waves, and for the eternal, all-encompassing, forever-kinda-love.