I think about my dad often. In the week leading up to Father’s day I think of him more often. We lost him 18 years ago to cancer at the age of 52. My dad isn’t here to know my sons. But he is alive in them in ways that surprise me all the time. He is in Colin’s wild eyes and his love of box scores. He is in Dylan’s love of history and tennis. I see him every day in my sons and know he is around. Recently, I began to see him in me.
I look like my mom and it would take too long to list the other ways we are similar so you’ll have to trust me. But when I think about how my brain sees the world as connections and possibilities, that is my dad. My dad made his living looking at large pieces of desert (Tucson, AZ is where I grew up) and enrolling business people and developers into a vision of what they could become. To him, open land was opportunity to build a thriving community and he had the vision, he enrolled people into the vision, and he worked through the realities to make it come true.
He and my mom started down that path when they bought their first home in 1969 on the edges of Tucson. They bought a small bit of land and a mud adobe house built in 1880. It was a hovel, with velvet wallpaper and indoor / outdoor carpet and land enough for a barn. They had vision for a home where they could keep a horse and have dogs and raise their children. They worked, daily, weekly, yearly to build the home they saw. They brought the vision to life. Today, my mom and step-dad still live in the house– it’s beautiful.
Someone recently asked me how I learned to make connections and think like this. I learned it at the dining room table and on road
-trips throughout Arizona listening to my father and his dreams. I lived in the transformation of my family home as I grew up. My parents developed it in me by encouraging dreams of my own and providing the support to make them come true. They taught me through word and action that:
- Seeing the possibility
- Enrolling others into it
- Acknowledging reality
- Living and working to achieve your vision
- Creates a big life
For me, I am reminded that a world full of people who are working and living their vision is a world of people growing and thriving.
That is why these conversations about vision are personal for me. Thank you for joining in…
I miss you dad –Guy Currier Jr.
Anders, Perry, Lesley and Chris – the thing that rings out in all of the messages is the retro-view of what we learned from our fathers. History and time are great educators if we listen.
Lovely Fathers Day message KC. I lost my father 20 years ago. I’m so much like him it scares me. I’m grateful for legacy.
Two points you shared KC (seeing the possibility & living and working to achieve your vision) are reminders I have about my Dad. There were times I didn’t necessarily agree with his “rules” or understand when he was trying to teach me certain values or responsibilities. BUT, now I see that he knew what he was doing. He saw possibilities in me I didn’t see at the time and a vision of me “being my very best.” I wouldn’t be who I am without his efforts and love for me. My Dad passed in 1990 and his spirit still lives with me.
I lost my dad two years ago. He was then an old man, with a declining memory. I choose to recall him when he was in the midst of his life – teaching, lecturing, searching for knowledge and sharing it. A true educator. Of course I see a lot of him in me, just like you Kimberly see more and more of your dad in you. Good parents, authorities, leaders, friends, spouses, … set traits in you that will carry over life-spans. I do not believe in eternity, but I truly believe that our real task in life is to add value to coming generations. No matter if you live only 52 – the size of the footprint matters. And Guy must have had large feet 🙂
Anders – thank you.
Thank you Chris – and thanks for sharing your dad’s motto – it’s a great one to remember.
Beautiful!:) My dad motto was “if you don’t like it, change it” and that definitely helped form my “no whining” attitude:)