Imperfect Progress Titles

“What’s your favorite memory of your father?”

The question surprised me; this meeting was to talk about my relationship with God, not the loss of my parents.

Immediately my mind went to the memory I most talk about: 5am hot chocolate with my father while the rest of the family slept.

Since dad and I were both morning people (this is pre-college), mornings were the one time I’d have him to myself. He’d drink coffee and I’d have cocoa. What we talked about didn’t matter; it was the time together.

Early in the morning continued to be our special time. Years later, as an adult who prefers sleep to early mornings, I’d drag myself out of bed for IHOP with dad before work if he happened to come into town.

Chris then asked how many people I’d told that story to. Honestly, I couldn’t answer because it was my “favorite memory” for every interview or conversation when everything happened last year.

But I grasped his point: I don’t talk about the sweet memories near enough. And I haven’t had much opportunity to hear sweet memories from others.

He asked me to write 21 blogs about my father, one a day for three weeks, each a sweet memory of the time he was alive.

In the weeks to follow, I’m going to endeavor to fulfill his request, but first, a few disclaimers:

• I don’t know if all these memories will be about my dad. Some may be my mom and some may be both of them.
• The speed at which I plan to write 21 blogs means they will have significantly less re-writing. I’ll likely make more typos and or grammatical errors. Just give me some grace.
• I make no promises that all 21 blogs will be written in the next 21 days. There are some days where my schedule is prohibitively busy and there is a 3 day retreat where I won’t have internet access. I’ll do my best to get all 21 as quickly as possible.
• This is meant to be a conversation, not a dissertation. Please share your own sweet memories of my parents in the comments.

I’ll call these my “micro-memories” since they will be micro blogs and each will feature just one memory. I hope you enjoy them and collaborate with me by sharing your own stories.