A few dried apples are still clinging to the tree. This morning while working in the yard I saw this monarch butterfly land on one of the dried apples and started eating away. I got the camera and was able to get a picture of it. It was the same color of the dried apple so its hard to see the butterfly, but if you double click it can be seen better. I sat and watched it feast on the apple till I finally had to get busy again. I take several time-outs during my work schedule every day. Since I am now my own boss I can do that. I thought of my dad this morning as I was taking an extra lot of time resting. He used to say to us kids while we were chopping cotton, “O K kids, you’ve rested long enough. Time to get busy.” He was very lenient with us, and I still miss him a lot. When I was growing up I didn’t think my dad was very smart, but now as I look back I think he was very intelligent. I can’t hardly wait to see where he will be sitting when I get to heaven. I don’t believe he will be on a back seat. I am thankful for all the things he taught me, even though I never told him that before he died. I now live in regret for being too stubborn to tell him “I love you.” I did have enough decency to let him know he had been better to me than he thought he had. In his latter days he said to me, “I just wish I could have given you kids more than I did. And, sis I didn’t want to spank you that time you cut up the material that your aunt had bought to make her daughter a coat, but…” I remember very well that incident. I was 12 years old and we were visiting my aunt and uncle in St. Louis Missouri. My aunt said she was going to try and make her daughter a coat, but said she didn’t know how. I thought I was a good seamstress so I was going to make the coat for her without telling anybody. My dad couldn’t remember very well because he never laid a hand on me. I can’t hardly remember even getting scolded very much. Somehow My dad was thinking he had been mean to me, and was having a hard time dealing with it. I did everything I could to make him understand that he never ever whipped me, and he had given me much more than I deserved. I just never told him that I loved him. He seemed too much more than a dad for me to tell him that. He was my reverend, my bible teacher, and my counselor, and much more. I am not the only member of the family that has appreciated him more since he passed on. My brothers, sisters, and many of my nieces, and nephews have all given much praise to this father, and grandfather whenever we have gotten together.
If sometimes we feel like we are not appreciated just remember, Jesus was not appreciated until after He was killed. He of all people had every reason to be loved, and appreciated. The memories of one’s childhood will forever live in them. We may leave our children here on earth, but we can’t take the memories away from them. The memories of my dad are nothing but good.
God Bless
Myrtle Jean Sharp
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