Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

My father has been gone 32 years.  But he is a presence in my life.  He guides me in love.  I knew he loved me every second.  That was his great gift to me.  He got angry with me, he didn't understand me or my values, he felt I made wrong choices.  He was bluntly, sometimes brutally vocal about it - no holding back.  But he was my rock, and not for financial reasons, although he believed that, but because his love was boundless.  He didn't respect women much or get along with his mother.  But he saw me as like himself, and we looked like twins, so I was an exception.  He was leery of my education but proud.  He felt entitled to judge me, and I had a hard time shrugging off that voice inside my head that was him:  his values, his era, his limits.  But I'm free of all that now, so all that is left is boundless love, and because of it I have been able to love myself.  Thanks, Dad.