The Second Jewel

I wrote this on a card for my Dad last Father's Day. It was, and is, simple and honest. And for me, it is important.

Another realization I had during the meditation course: I have little use for rules. This is not to say I live haphazardly or make careless choices. It is rather just the opposite. I see choices with probable results instead of axioms. My thought process runs something like, 'If I do this, then that is likely; If I do that, then this,' but very, very rarely 'Do this, period, because somebody said so.' As I see people around me struggle to adhere to this or that externally imposed code, be it formally recognized as such or not, I am infinitely grateful to know just who I am, what I am capable of, and exactly why I make the choices I do. This is why I am free.

I give my Dad a lot of credit for my growing into such a person. His voice will forever echo in my head telling me he 'doesn't know the meaning of can't' and that 'because isn't a reason.' He also once told me, out of frustration, that if I was going to live my whole life scared I might as well jump off a bridge now, out of desperation, that if I ever thought of giving up on life I ought to get a second opinion, and out of pure love, with tears in his eyes not once but twice, that I was special.

I was always listening, and I believed every word...