-

 Today July 24 celebrating my Father’s Birthday 

Papa would be turning 97   

 

Mama writes: “This year 1985 your Papa turned 60 years old,  

Dream and Time, he looks good, right?” 

 

My two siblings, Matthias and Dinah, and I had the immense luck of having a very resourceful, inventive, and unconventional father. The perfect partner to my unique mother. He was a beloved problem solver at his job, later on a revered boss. A very gentle man, beautiful and naturally open, charming. After Papa retired at 65, he took to making ceramics. Earlier he had built a bigger ceramic oven for my mother. Now both of them did ceramics. He had two more years before his death from lymph cancer. In those years he created among other things, square dinner plates in several sizes and square cups. All with that light blue glaze that I cherish. His curiosity and creativity, were active till his last day... 


I celebrate his spirit, drink from the cup, eat from the plate he made for me

A lake of gratitude in my heart 

 


Among other entries where my father appears, my recent Papa Trilogy from mid-May: 

https://karinalandriver.blogspot.com/2022/05/part-2-three-miracles-initiation-once.html 


and his birthday entry from last year:  

https://karinalandriver.blogspot.com/2021/07/today-is-my-fathers-birthday.html 


Comments

  1. Alex KJuly 25, 2022 at 3:29 PM

    Wonderful picture of your father. He is deep in thought and looks like a kind man. From what you write, it sounds like at the end of his life (though not so many years) he had time to rest, have fun and let his soul and mind wander afar. How you are nourished by the memories of your father and mother is wonderful. I can only imagine how happy that makes them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. KarinaJuly 26, 2022 at 7:30 PM

      Two years only he had, he was so looking forward... this made all of us utterly sad. That he lived at all, and that long, was though all a great wonder. Of course i always knew vividly how much he was wounded deep inside. This is what makes me so emphatic about the long lasting repercussions of any war, and the current war in Europe, so close to where i am from, gives me a sharp heartache every day...unavoidably... Our ancestors feel nourished too when we remember and celebrate!

      Delete
  2. nicole gervacioAugust 1, 2022 at 11:23 AM

    Sweet & intimate way of honoring your Papa, it’s beautiful how integrated arts, crafts, and creativity is within your family…love learning about your parents and can see how parts of them shine through you.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

-
Image
  Immigration On Friday morning of September 20, I am spending a couple of hours for my naturalization interview in the federal building  on 630 Sansome Street in San Francisco  that houses the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Then later at 1 pm, in the oath ceremony, I am reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Standing, holding up my right hand like everyone else, repeating the words after our master of ceremonies, I am engulfed in a chorus of immigrants’ voices from all over the world. Out of maybe 80, only two are Caucasian. The man leading us through the 20 minutes ceremony, is most likely a judge, but without his robe. He is an elegant, kind, and personable elder. We can hear the genuineness in his voice, and we are genuine, too. As we pledge allegiance to this country, the English sentences might ring slightly different for each of us. In another minute we will be citizens of the United States. Something in me is expanding. I am swearing to be a responsible an...
Read more
-
Image
  Last Dance with Uncle Oak This time, to honor the loss of another member of my ancient live oaks, I want to climb into the tree. Like I used to do 32 years ago, move, touch, feel – suspended in the air, resting on bark, sensations to be remembered. Perhaps documenting it? I ask around last minute, and find a good match in photographer  Rebecca Weinstein  to take stills of my last dance with old Uncle Oak. Once my naked feet touch the rough bark, a dynamic joy starts spreading through my body and limbs. The surprising urge to elongate myself within the safety of his sturdy arms. Next morning in a different light, I dress for another chance of closeness, envisioning my smallness to be captured. The freedom to grow into a tree, become tree , get an oak’s view, blend well, and disappear eventually. Uncle Oak, has been leaning for decades, growing northward horizontally, reaching far over into the neighbor’s yard. Now that Mama Oak has left, his malaise is more apparent...
Read more
-
Image
  Looking at you… f aintly the handwriting reads:    Karina & Bob, Here’s looking at you in 1994 With best regards, Howard   Back when he studied T’ai Chi with me for a few years, Howard was already older, a fine, eccentric gentleman. And a very good and well-known artist. With a deeply philosophical side to him which made him enjoy my way of teaching the Art and Principles of this ancient practice. He’d have questions, comments, always delighted by insights, his or mine.   In the hallway I often pass his small watercolor, with its (faded by now) inscription to Bob and me. Bob’s birthday will be in three days on May 18.  If alive, my late husband – who died in October of 2016 – would turn ninety-five this year. Suddenly I feel the presence of time in my heart, swirling about back and forth, swooshing from chamber to chamber, expanding. Howard’s greeting from 1994 – thirty years later, I am now seventy, about the age he was back then.  Suddenly I am...
Read more