Happy Birthday Dad

Happy Birthday Dad. When I think about what you've meant to me in my life, these two pictures encapsulate a lot of what I've learned from you. In the first picture, you are reading to me when I was still so little. Reading has been such a crucial and pivotal thing for me, my whole life long. When I was younger, I read like crazy to escape and explore other people and places. In jr. high and high school I often preferred the shelves of books in our house over social situations. In college, I'd read books to remind me of home when I felt so homesick that first year. I read every Ensign from 1978-1999 on my mission in the evenings when we couldn't go out at night because it was too dangerous. When I was pregnant, I felt like a sponge and read everything I could about childbirth and labor. I still think my favorite thing to do on a cold day or a long summer night is to read. Reading inspired what sometimes feels like an insatiable appetite for learning in me. Reading also made me more empathetic and sensitive to other people. And you taught me to love reading. When we go home and I see you reading to Andrew at night, I think how fortunate and blessed we are to come from a home where learning was so cherished and demonstrated so readily.

The other thing you've inspired in me that was such a gift (and still is): a spirit of adventure. In this picture, Marc, Paul, you and me are near the top of Kilimanjaro. I remember writing to you while on that trip in East Africa for your birthday to thank you for taking me to that continent. It truly inspired me and changed my life in so many ways - since then I have spent a good portion of my time there and much of my thoughts there. Almost every paper I've written in graduate school thus far has been about South Africa. And I hope to take John and Joyce there to see and meet the people that have meant so much to me. It is rare and so precious to have the kind of exposure to faraway places that we have had growing up. Thank you for that.

It does seem a little strange to be thanking you on your birthday for all the gifts you've given me, when it's a day set aside to bestow gifts upon you. But I don't think I could give you much more than my gratitude. I know you can buy anything you might want for yourself and you're not really one for homemade trinkets - so thanking you for the many things you've given me seemed like the only thing I could do. I love you Dad. I hope you had a good one.