Stunned by Love

So here I sit, in the waning hours of my birthday, pondering my day and an amazing and unexpected gift that I received this evening from my Dad.

After eating dinner tonight with my parents, sans siblings, we took the time to sit around the family table and talk for a stretch of time. My Mom reminisced about the hours my brother Brian sat on a stool at the hospital into the wee hours of dawn waiting for the arrival of his new brother. We sat back with the dishes cleared and reconnected on a level that has been sorely missed by myself. My Dad told me some great stories of my forgotten childhood and we took a fantastic slow trip down the memory lane of my life. Only those people who have been there since the first moments of your life can truly offer perspective on who you were and what you have become.

The talk had subsided and it was time to open the cards and my gifts and celebrate this day that was mine. As usual, my parents found the perfect card and also picked out those things I had wished for over the year, but never taken the time to purchase for myself. How they manage to surprise and delight me each birthday I do not know, but I do know that I love it, and them, very much.

I came to my last gift and picked it up with some curiosity. It was incredibly heavy in my hands and its large shape had me puzzled. Was it a new handgun that I had studied at a show with my Dad? Possibly some new car parts for my never ending projects? Maybe it was 1000 rounds of ammunition to subsidize my target shooting obsession or maybe reloading supplies? I turned it over in my hands and began to slowly unwrap the paper carefully that had been so painstakingly applied by my Mom, obviously. She laughed and told me to go ahead and rip it open. I noticed the camera was poised for some shots which had me puzzled all the more.

What could this be? And from my Dad, at that?

Once revealed, I held in my hands a beautiful wooden box of substantial weight. Its smooth polished surface gave no indication of the treasure I would find within. The gift I never expected to receive and still cannot fathom coming from the man that I call my Dad.

This is what I found...

"Happy Birthday #2!" was written in his Copperplate writing at the top of a sheet of his stationary. Below it was this note, handwritten, with great care.

"They say when an angel misses you, they toss a penny down from heaven. Sadly, not everyone knows how much truth there is to this old adage.

The Spirit has many interesting ways of communicating with us, and always on a very personal level. Your spiritual signs and signals can range from the truly spectacular to the very mundane. Sometimes they can be found in the most unusual places, or when they are least expected. Two of the most commonly sighted phenomena are coins as well as feathers. Depending on your belief system, these items left or placed around are left by loved ones, angels or God.

No matter where you may believe your signs are coming from, they are most certainly meant especially for you, and they always have a sincere and personal meaning, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant they may appear to be.

So don't pass by that penny. When you are feeling blue, it may be a penny from Heaven, that an angels tossed to you. ~

Daemon,

Each penny in this box represents one prayer for you when you were away in the Navy,  all those long years. Each nickle is  five prayers, each dime...ten prayers and so on...

You do remember that day in Chicago when Chris, your Mom and I visited you after Boot Camp? We were so proud of you, standing tall in that uniform. You picked up a penny on Michigan Avenue and told me that whenever you found one, you would think of us and say a prayer.  From that day on...I did the same.

Then one day, the pennies from Heaven stopped because you had returned home to us from the sea.

However, I never stopped praying for you.

These are those pennies, those coins... all prayers for you.

Dad ~


PS: They were all found at various places as I walked through my life."

The hand made wooden box was full of coins. Those prayers were the weight I felt. This is what he had done for me all of those years.

There was nothing I could say.

I held love in my hands tonight.

It came in a wooden box and was very heavy.

I will carry this weight in my heart and mind for a long time to come.

Just wanted to share.

Daemon